Young Argentines who sold a small internet site to Banco Santander for millions of dollars at the height of the internet bubble are jumping into Brazilian banking to compete with the region’s largest financial institutions.

This month, The Banker publishes its first ranking of trade conditions for Latin America based on 2002 data.

Monica Campbell on the steps Nicaragua is taking to lose its status as one of the region’s most corrupt countries.

Even the weakest governments and newest companies have found issuing debt easy, writes Sophie Roell.

The Banker’s first Central American ranking sees continued growth, thanks to services sector expansion.

Some of the big Latin American banks are concentrating on new retail products to attract the unbanked segment of the population and thus grow market share. Monica Campbell reports.
Now that many big foreign banks play a major role in Latin America’s financial system, the race is on to capture a bigger chunk of the market, including its evolving commercial marketplace. Although most banks still thirst for wealthy clients, they are also slowly recognising the potential of Latin America’s enormous unbanked population.

Alfonso Prat-Gay, Argentina’s central bank governor, talks to Karina Robinson about his plans for recapitalising the ailing financial system.
In the run up to my meeting with 38-year-old Alfonso Prat-Gay, governor of the Central Bank of Argentina, I had met 16 top businessmen, bankers and economists who were uniformly charming and informative. So I feared for the famed trait of Argentine arrogance (the classic joke told to me by a host of locals is: How can you make a lot of money? Buy an Argentine for what you know he is worth and sell him for what he thinks he is worth). It was with a sigh of relief, then, that I encountered Mr Prat-Gay, who has that famed trait in spades.

Hugh O’Shaughnessy talks to Grenada’s Prime Minister, Dr Keith Mitchell, about why the island’s time as an offshore financial services centre was so shortlived.

Andrew Smithers argues that the US current account deficit is too small and its financial markets need to fall.

Top US banks, led by Citigroup, again produced strong profits growth in the fourth quarter and for all of 2003, reflecting imp-roved credit quality and strength in retail financial services.