Not only are there moves afoot to review the regional imbalances in the IMF’s and World Bank’s funding programmes but also calls to review the way the institutions’ leaders are chosen. 

Bankers agree on the need to broaden client bases away from high-income groups, where the market is saturated, to lower income groups. Jane Monahan in Lima reports.

Despite being blacklisted by the world’s major regulatory bodies in 2000, Panama’s banks never stopped growing. Jane Monahan reports from Panama City.

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

With financial co-operatives still indulging in inadvisable practices, the country’s next banking crisis is just about due – but the sector is in much better shape to deal with it this time, reports Jane Monahan from Asunción.

Momentum is building in favour of sustainability standards but there is still a long way to go. Jane Monahan looks at the state of progress in the implementation of the Equator Principles.
What has sustainability to do with private banks? Their labour policies are good and they do not produce the carbon emissions that are the main culprits of climate change.

Reaction to President George W Bush’s latest budget proposals – which were presented to Congress on February 7 – has been mixed, writes Jane Monahan in Washington.

Can Costa Rica – traditionally stable compared with its central American neighbours – preserve its tradition of consensus building and move ahead with liberal economic reforms? Jane Monahan reports.
The question mark over Costa Rica’s economic future came into sharp focus when the finance minister, Alberto Dent, resigned on September 3, at a time of mounting opposition to his package of economic reforms.