...great things can come, as microfinance pioneer Banmujer shows. Hugh O’Shaughnessy reports from Caracas on how the tiny bank aimed at poor women is attracting international attention and emulation.

With profits healthy, private banks seem happy to play ball with their ideological nemesis, president Hugo Chávez. Jane Monahan reports from Caracas.

There is growing concern that Venezuela’s banks are ignoring their
private credit portfolios and relying instead on government paper, says
Mike Ceaser.
What happens when a nation’s banking system loses all of its customers
except one? When that nation is Venezuela, and the customer is the
government, the banks thrive. But the morals of this tactic and its
effect on the nation’s economy are being questioned.“Not having access to international markets, which had a very high cost, the state turned to the internal market”