Ecuador's private banks are up in arms about the effects of government intervention on their profits. The country's finance minister, however, rejects such accusations, saying that the relationship between bank and customer was in need of a rebalancing. Writer Rodrigo Amaral in Madrid

Ecuador’s bankers insist the president’s high stakes political strategy, which has included singling them out as public enemies, is ruining the economy. John Rumsey reports.

Elected on an anti-poverty mandate, Ecuador’s government may be clashing with private banks over microloan fees but it accepts the economy should be capitalist, underpinned by a competitive banking system. Jane Monahan reports from Quito.