South America


Financial innovation in emerging markets

Earlier this month, the Ecuadorian Government announced its plans to introduce a digital currency, the first of its kind globally. In a country where 40% of citizens don’t have a bank account according to The Economist, this has the potential to transform banking and allow companies to gain access to those without a bank account for the first time

Banco Macro opts for cloud

Argentina’s Banco Macro will use the Mambu cloud as the basis for a new business unit, which will offer loans to micro-enterprises and small businesses. The aim is to provide a lifeline to areas that have historically lacked access to financial services.

Brazil overhauls derivatives market

Brazil’s BM&F Bovespa exchange has begun a major new project to bring all of its four clearing houses onto a single technology platform. Billed as the “world’s largest clearing project”, the Brazilian derivatives market – one of the world’s largest – has been moved first.

Citi names finalists for Latin America Mobile Challenge 2014

Citi has chosen the ‘headliner’ finalists for its mobile innovation competition in Latin America, the Mobile Challenge LatAm 2014, which aims to bring together individuals and companies with innovative ideas to create applications for Citi’s Latin America mobile banking platform.

Citi starts Latin American mobile startup challenge

Citi is hosting a major new mobile innovation competition in Latin America. Called the Mobile Challenge LatAm 2014, the competition aims to bring together individuals and companies with innovative ideas to create applications for Citi’s Latin America mobile banking platform.

ICAP connects with Perseus for Brazilian HFT service

Broker ICAP will use high-frequency trading infrastructure from specialist Perseus Telecom as it seeks to expand its coverage across Brazil and Latin America. ICAP is already active in the region, where it connects to São Paulo and Mexico City. The Perseus LiquidPath service provides connectivity, hosting, consulting, and real time monitoring, and includes HFT services […]

Financial services looking up, down Mexico way

After many years of struggle, Mexicans may be about to snatch the crown of Latin America’s most promising financial services market from their Portuguese-speaking cousins in Brazil.

Santander and iZettle launch in Brazil

Swedish payment company iZettle and Spain’s Banco Santander have launched a new ‘social payments’ system in Brazil, which is designed to help small businesses take card payments with Apple and Android smartphones and tablets.

YellowPepper spices up Latin American mobile payments

A new mobile payments network called YellowPepper has launched in Colombia, marking the beginning of a massive project to bank the unbanked and sweep away the dominance of cash across the Spanish-speaking Americas.

LSE to supply new Argentine B&MA exchange technology

Argentina’s Caja de Valores central securities depository has chosen the London Stock Exchange to be its technology provider, as the depository gears up to support the country’s new Bolsa & Mercados Argentinos exchange.

CaixaBank targets Brazilian payments market

Spain’s CaixaBank is planning to target Brazil’s payments industry via a new joint venture with US transaction processing firm Global Payments that builds on the bank’s experience of digital channels its home market.

Digital money, mobile wallets & Latin America

In our world of 100%+ mobile penetration, companies in Latin America will soon need to think like their next wave of prospective customers, most of whom are unbanked. This means understanding their lifestyles, habits and needs in order to decide how to best generate value.

Chilean banks build CCP based on Calypso tech

A group of Chilean banks working on a new CCP for OTC derivatives have chosen Calypso technology to help build its core clearing platform, in an initiative that highlights Latin America’s efforts to match G20 financial sector reforms.

Stars of the south

Brazil, according to a long-standing joke, is the country of the future and always will be. Founded by a mixture of Portuguese explorers and colonists, indigenous peoples, and European and African immigrants, Latin America’s largest country boasts a population of 200 million and a GDP that eclipsed that of the UK in 2011. The country’s banking infrastructure reflects both its rapid rise in recent years and its historic status as an emerging market.

Brazil financial services reforms bring foreign investor promise

As Brazil gears up to host the World Cup next year and the Olympics in 2016, a clutch of government reforms hold high promise for the country’s financial infrastructure, according to Aldo Mendes, deputy governor, monetary policy at Brazil’s Central Bank.

Brazil brings mobile payments home

Brazil is to gain its first ever mobile payment service this month, with the launch of a joint service provided by Spanish and South American telecom firm Telefónica and MasterCard.

BM&F Bovespa links up to BT Radianz Cloud

Brazilian exchange BM&F Bovespa has joined the BT Radianz Cloud, a financial community that connects 500 member locations in Latin America with BT’s global network.

Rising stars dominate World Exchange Congress

Emerging markets Brazil, India and Turkey took the spotlight at yesterday’s World Exchange Congress event in London, as senior executives highlighted rising technological investment, growing competition and successful index performance.

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