Welcome to Texas, where global banking heavyweights are racing to cater to the banking needs of the fast-growing Hispanic population. Monica Campbell reports.
In Texas, as in other Hispanic US states, such as California, Florida and New York, both foreign and US banks are rushing to cater to a Hispanic market that they merely dabbled in not so long ago.
It is easy to see why Hispanics are finally getting attention. The Hispanic population is the fastest-growing minority group in the US, and it is predicted to grow from 14% of the country’s population – 40 million people – to 24% by 2050, according to the US government.

There is growing anxiety over the vast US budget deficit. The next US administration needs to remedy the situation – fast.

Paulo Miron, Sergio Rogante and Graham Nye of PricewaterhouseCoopers review the effects of inflation on Brazil’s banking sector.

Foreign banks are under attack in Mexico for charging high fees although the criticisms have been rejected by the Mexican Association of Banks. In September, Oscar Levin, head of the Mexican government’s banking consumer protection agency, sided with those taking a bleak view of Mexico’s banking system by delivering a report that slammed the institutions for charging high financial service fees.

Karina Robinson argues that, in practical terms, the policies of the Democrats differ little from those of the Republicans. At the end of the day, the US pursues the same strategic objectives regardless of who is in the Oval Office and, moreover, is prepared to go it alone.

The effects of an increase in US interest rates on the Latin American economy may be neutralised if the US can also deliver strong economic growth, writes Monica Campbell.

Banco Cuscatlan

Two and a half years after Argentina’s debt default, creditors are up in arms over the country’s offer to pay back only a quarter of the Ł82bn it owes. But the government has so far refused to budge. Sophie Roell reports.
It’s not a promising sign in any negotiations when one party is not willing to talk to the other and both sides seem as unreasonable as each other. Furious with the paltry amount the Argentine government is offering for the $82bn in debt it defaulted on in December 2001, the Global Committee of Argentina Bondholders (GCAB), grouping together holders of about $37bn in debt, is fighting back with its own idea of a fair settlement.

A newly-elected minority Liberal government has left the prospects for Canadian bank mergers looking uncertain. Sheldon Gordon reports from Toronto. Canada’s general election on June 28 produced the worst possible outcome for the country’s banking sector. Prime minister Paul Martin’s Liberals were returned to office but, with only a plurality of the seats, they will have to cater to two smaller, left-wing parties in order to command a majority in parliament. Bankers would clearly have preferred the stability of a clear-cut victory by either Mr Martin’s Liberals or their main opponent, the Conservative Party.

One of the thorniest chapters of Mexico’s 1994-95 financial meltdown may be closing. In mid-July, four of the country’s biggest foreign-owned banks – Citigroup-controlled Banamex, HSBC of the UK, BBVA Bancomer, the local unit of Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, and Mexican-run Banorte – agreed to absorb nearly $830m in bad loans that the government took on in return for bonds in order to help save the banks following the peso crash.