Top banks: ranked by assets as of December 31,
2004.(Illustration)
Top Banks
Ranked by assets as of December 31, 2004
RANK
2004 2003 INSTITUTION COUNTRY
1 1 Banco do Brasil Brazil
2 2 . . .
Growth formula: foreign superbanks look for new opportunities as
free trade kicks into high gear.
For more than three years, General Electric Consumer Finance--part
of gigantic U.S. industrial, media and financial conglomerate General
Electric (GE)--circled over the world's emerging markets, . . .
Winners & losers.(banking industry)(Illustration)
WINNERS & LOSERS
Scorecard of who's news in the bank rank
Percent change 2004 vs. 2003
ASSETS (% CHANGE '04/'03)
HSBC BANK CHILE 145
BANCO AZTECA, MEXICO . . .
Yes, we're open.(Argentina)(Banco de la Ciudad de Buenos
Aires)(Brief Article)
It seems Argentina is finally well on its way along the road to
recovery. After an economic implosion in 2002, businesses are opening
their doors again and banks are there to lend. Banco de la . . .
Boom towns: home financing in Mexico is on the rise as interest
rates fall--driving deals among banks, too.
For 30-year-old Mexican Noberto Villalobos, 2004 was a very good
year. After saving up some money over the last four years, Villalobos
noticed that the Mexican real-estate market was attractive . . .
Loan ranger.(Geraldo Carbone)(Interview)
As president of BankBoston in Brazil, Geraldo Carbone has held
since 1997 the same spot that once belonged to Henrique Meirelles, now
the president of Brazil's Central Bank. Traditionally serving . . .
The captain.(Vittorio Corbo, economist)(Interview)
It's understood that fiscal transparency and discipline has
been a pillar of stability for the Chilean economy. But an effective
monetary policy, in combination with public-spending restraint, is . . .
Rivers of cash: Brazil's banks are bigger and more
profitable but credit remains expensive and scarce.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva irritated many Brazilians when,
a few months ago, he called upon them to "get their butts up off
their chairs" and look for banks offering lower interest rates. . . .
2005 financial leaders: the top 100 banks, pension funds,
insurers and brokerage houses.(Brief Article)(Cover Story)
Any government can boast healthy economic indicators, but the
people won't be impressed unless their lives are any better. High
commodity prices can push up gross domestic product and that may be . . .
Cream of the crop: Colombian coffee growers turn the familiar
Juan Valdez brand from an ad into a retailer.(MARKETING)
For the 327 coffee-growing families selling their beans through El
Jazmin, a cooperative in the mountainous Colombian city of Pereira, Juan
Valdez is their ace marketer. Yes, the same Juan Valdez . . .
From small things: Brazil, Russia, India and China--the emerging
world's big dogs--are starting to get attention.(MARKETING)
The alphabet soup of corporate sales geographies is amusing enough.
Somehow, companies combine cultures as distinct as Europe, the Middle
East and Africa into a single area (EMEA). Others talk of . . .
Big chill: a gold mine might make engineering history in Chile
and Argentina, but protestors are out to block it.(MINING)
With the discovery of the New World, tales of a resplendent, gilded
kingdom, El Dorado, spurred legions of adventurers to set sail. In their
sometimes suicidal pursuit of gold, however, Spain's . . .
Stripped bare: a profit motive might be the best way to convince
poor farmers to leave the trees alone.(RADAR)
It's shaping up to be a banner year for bad environmental news
from Latin America. The destruction of the Amazon jungle has reached its
highest level in a decade. Thirty-six million hectares of . . .
The statesman.(RADAR)(Jose Maria Aznar, former spanish prime
minister)(Interview)
Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has the luxury these
days of speaking his mind. The driving force behind Spain's return
to the fore among world powers, he makes no bones about being . . .
Wired tribe.(RADAR)(Javae tribe, Brazil)(Brief Article)
Six-year-old Ikulari, an indigenous boy from Brazil's Javae
tribe in Tocantins state, north of Brasilia, ran away from the first
computer he ever saw--twice. Now, however, he is instead glued to . . .
Racket club.(RADAR)(Brief Article)
A corruption scandal that forced Brazilian President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva's chief of staff Jose Dirceu to resign has rocked the
government's coalition and the nation. Dirceu was accused . . .
Safe and sound--sort of.(RADAR)(Brief Article)
Wealthy Latin Americans generally have less appetite for risk than
rich folks from other corners of the globe, according to a study
compiled by U.S. investment bank Merrill Lynch and French . . .
Chat line.(RADAR)
"We are not making huge strategic changes. This is a
transitional government."--Armando Loayza, Bolivian foreign
relations minister (El Mercurio) We don't have one but four
bureaucracies. This . . .
Hot stuff.(RADAR)(Brief Article)
Just over a year ago, Empada Ranch was little more than a lunch
truck selling snacks in Sao Paulo. Today, the truck is retired, the
business has become a franchise and the chain has eight stores . . .
Mover and shaker.(RADAR)(Brief Article)
Most who know Charleston, South Carolina, think of salt marshes,
southern cuisine and lovely antebellum homes. Talk to port officials
there, and they're thinking even further south, to Central . . .
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