Latin 100 2000: Mexico outperforms

Latin America’s banks have mostly managed to weather the region’s economic slump. Relative currency movements account in large part for changes in the Latin 100 rankings since last year’s snapshot was taken a month before Brazil’s currency devaluation. Despite shaky asset quality no Mexican bank listed in the tables rises fewer than two places. Argentina also makes a good showing as the one-for-one dollar peg helps to shore up balance sheets. Brazil’s banks are the region’s biggest, though returns are distorted by the exceptional interest rate levels of March 1999. Data from Moody’s.