Growth in Puerto Rico's economy is sluggish, and its banks have been struggling to find profitable areas. However, a round of mergers and acquisitions – some of them enforced – and opportunities overseas mean that the island's lenders are finding some ways to expand.

GE Capital was once responsible for more than half General Electric’s profit. So why is the conglomerate busy dismantling the international assets of its financial arm?

Private banking and wealth management can be hugely lucrative, bringing in fees and boosting profits in a way that other areas of banking struggle to match. However, increased regulatory pressures and the emergence of newer, cheaper online competitors are shifting the landscape of the market. Jane Monahan examines an industry at a crossroads.

The US's decision to normalise relations with Cuba promises to create new opportunities for American banks looking to expand. But, with the US government's changes still to be finalised, the country's banks are reacting cautiously.

The funding of infrastructure projects by institutional investors is a topic being hotly debated right now. While the hurdles for institutional parties looking at such opportunities are many, there is a growing feeling that in such a low-interest-rate environment, their potentially high yields make them worth the risk and effort.

With a number of eye-watering fines emanating from the US in recent years, The Banker profiles the numerous regulators that are dishing out these punishments, and looks at how they police the world's largest financial market.

Ecuador is striving to re-establish ties with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, tap international capital markets and embrace orthodox economic policies. However, when it comes to banking, the country's new direction is not proving to be universally popular.

Since their federal takeover in 2008, the fate of US mortgage underwriters Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has hung in the balance. Politicians have jostled back and forth on the issue of winding them down, but without any workable and politically agreeable way to fill the void they would leave in the US housing market, it seems that the two institutions may be here to stay.

Politicians claim that 2014 is going to be a key year of economic development for Venezuela, with a new foreign exchange system driven by supply and demand. How will banks respond?