All five banks in the Latin American top five banks ranking are based in Brazil. The leading lender, Itaú Unibanco, is the largest bank in the region with $37.13bn of Tier 1 capital. This represents a 5.56% increase in core capital compared with the previous year. The second largest lender, Banco do Brasil, saw a much smaller increase in its capital reserves, recording a 0.05% increase in Tier 1 capital, taking its core capital to $36.32bn.
Banco Bradesco, which is the third largest lender in Latin America, saw its core capital decrease by 6.98% to $30.08bn. Core capital was also in decline at Banco Santander Brasil, which saw its Tier 1 decrease by 15.2% to $27.02bn.
For more on Latin America's largest banks, see The Banker's Top 200 Latin American banks ranking.
