Boasting top institutional and physical infrastructures the Cayman Islands has grown to become the world’s fifth largest financial centre. James Eedes reports.

Sometimes, however, it is not the US authorities that give central American banks a hard time, it is their own authorities. El Salvadorean banks are miffed because the investment reserves they deposit at the central bank are outsourced to international investment banks to manage.

The opening of a representative office overseas – not even a branch – does not usually attract the attentions of a country’s president. But when Banco Ficohsa, one of the top banks in Honduras, opened a representative office in the US last month, the president of the country, Manuel Zelaya, along with the central bank governor and the president of the national congress, were all present.

Susana Fernández Caro details how some banks have tapped into
the potential for making loans available exclusively through ATMs.

Forty-four per cent of Spanish bank BBVA’s 2005 attributable net profit came from Latin America. There is both a downside to this – excessive dependence on a risky region – and an upside – an incredible opportunity to leverage a strong franchise.

Brian Caplen reports on government efforts to avoid past mistakes and provide security for future generations.

These days financial centres are springing up all over the place and central America and the Caribbean already has its fair share. Yet still there are new contenders, the latest being Trinidad and Tobago, whose ambitions are not modest.

The headlines about Latin America this year have been dominated by left-wing outpourings from Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez, by Bolivian President Evo Morales’s nationalisation of the country’s oil and gas fields and by corruption allegations involving Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration, which may well put his re-election in jeopardy.

There are no big surprises in the North American ranking, where Citigroup still leads its nearest domestic rival by a similar margin to that of last year. Then, it led JPMorgan by virtue of $74.4bn in Tier 1 capital to the latter’s $68.6bn; this year, it leads Bank of America Corp with $79.4bn against BofA’s $74bn.

Trinidadian banks are hungry for a bigger slice of the country’s lucrative energy sector but their plea for an end to withholding tax, which they argue would make them more able to compete, is falling on deaf ears. Brian Caplen reports from Port of Spain.