Francisco González Rodríguez, BBVA. The multilatina is taking advantage of the positive story across the region
There are parallels between Latin America’s investment and retail banking markets. In the past the only pan-regional operators in both banking segments came from the international banks, although in each of the disparate Latin American markets domestic banks were strong competitors to the international banks. Now ‘multilatinas’ are evolving, driven by a myriad of factors to acquire and to grow in neighbouring markets. This process is picking up pace and is likely to lead to a very different list of dominant regional banks in the years ahead. However, to date, the Spanish duo of Santander and BBVA are still the strongest pan-regional retail banks. The best bank in Latin America award goes to BBVA. The bank has at least one subsidiary in nine of the Latin American countries.
