If the US and Europe cannot agree on a common capital adequacy system, the idea of a level playing field will become a vain hope.

Barbados premier Owen Arthur tells James Eedes what lies behind his economic policies, which he continues to follow against the advice of the IMF.

Banorte, Mexico’s fifth-largest bank, is doing well under the leadership of chief executive Luis Peña Kegel.Monica Campbell reports from Mexico City.
These days, Luis Peña Kegel, the 45-year old chief executive of Banorte, has reason to relax in his spacious Mexico City office. Talk about a strong year. In the second quarter of 2005, Banorte delivered earnings totalling $192m, a 249% jump compared to the same 2004 period.

Research shows that foreign banks operating in Japan have found the going increasingly tough during the past 12 months while the US prepaid card market goes from strength to strength. Stephen Timewell explains.

The roller-coaster Latin American banking system could become more stable if potential crises are spotted and dealt with quickly, writes Jonathan Wheatley from São Paulo.
Latin America, it seems, is a region perpetually lurching from one crisis to another.

Ending global poverty is each nation’s responsibility – but the global policies also have to be right, says President Ricardo Lagos of Chile.

Argentina’s National Securities Commission (NSC) has launched an official investigation into 30.9m pesos ($11.3m) of bonus payments made in 2005 to directors of Banco Hipotecario, one of the main mortgage lenders in the country.

Despite Bolivia’s political and social upheaval, its financial sector has remained relatively stable. But, as Jaime Dunn De Avila writes from La Paz, the loan system has some fundamental flaws that need addressing.

Amid economic and political turmoil, Haitian banks have woken up to the fact that micro-finance is an essential part of business, reports Michael Deibert in Port-au-Prince.