Miami, Latin American Financial Capital on November 4th to 6th

“This event will provide the ideal setting to analyze the region’s current economic situation and work on solutions to the general challenges such as the lack of active participation and trust in the financial system,” said Fernando Pozo, president of FELABAN, an organization that comprises more than 500 banks and institutions in 19 Latin American countries. According to Pozo, more executives are expected to attend this year’s conference than in the previous edition, which was held two years ago in Miami and drew 1,472 executives. “By this date in 2005, seven hundred people had registered, while at this year’s total in the same time period exceeds 1, 200,” Pozo said. During the conference, a panel will present the results of an important survey that FELABAN and the Andean Development Corporation, or CAF, carried out among the regional banking associations to determine the level of bank usage in Latin American countries. The study, titled Promoting Access to Financial Services. What the figures on Bank Usage in Latin America Tell Us, will be presented by Liliana Rojas-Suarez, president of the Latin American Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee, or CLAFF, and its results will be discussed by Manuel Mendez del Rio, president of the BBVA Microfinance Foundation; Atul Mehta, regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Financial Corporation (IFC); Steven Reed, deputy general manager of the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC); Arnaldo Bocco, director of Argentina’s Central Bank; and Maria Ayuso, executive vice president of Visa International, Latin American and Caribbean region.The 41st Annual Assembly will also include the participation of Guillermo Ortiz, the governor of the Bank of Mexico; and Ricardo Hausmann, a Harvard economist and former chief economist of the Inter-American Development Bank, or IDB, who will give talks on Transparency and Free Competition in Mexican Banking and Beyond the Short Term: Where are Latin America and the World Headed?, respectively. Other topics that will be analyzed are current banking practices for small and mid-size companies, the present state of the global economy and its impact on banking, the practice of good corporate governance and the opportunities and risks that the environment presents for the financial sector. Also scheduled to speak at the assembly are Paulo Leme, managing director for emerging markets at investment banking firm Goldman Sachs; Douglas Smith of Standard Chartered Bank; Mauro Leos of Moody’s Investors Service; and David Schwartz, president of the Florida International Bankers Association, which is responsible for organizing FELABAN’s Annual Assembly. Schwartz said the conference “is the best showcase in the regional financial field to share experiences and in the same way increase Latin America’s banking opportunities with the rest of the world.” The Miami event “will be a wonderful opportunity to exchange ideas,” the executive said, adding that “in the end we all make up a single financial community.” In announcing the FELABAN meeting, Pozo urged Latin American governments to “understand that their efforts to achieve social and economic growth must go hand in hand with a determination to develop and expand their financial infrastructures, as well as improve their regulatory systems and commercial supervision.”