Power and Crisis: Explaining Varieties of Commercial Banking Systems in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Issue 1 (April 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Etchemendy, Sebastián; Puente, Ignacio
• Is Part Of: Journal of politics in Latin America. Volume 9:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 3
• Page End: 31
• Publication Date: 2017-04
• Subjects: Latin America -- Argentina -- Brazil -- Mexico -- banking system -- political economy -- América Latina -- Argentina -- Brazil -- Mexico -- sistema bancario -- economía política; Comparative government -- Periodicals; Latin America -- Politics and government -- 1980- -- Periodicals; Politics and government; Latin America; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 320.3098
• DOI: 10.1177/1866802X1700900101
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1866-802X

Abstract

In the early 1980s Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico had commercial banking sectors that were dominated by local banks. The largest countries in Latin America were subjected to common international economic pressures during both the neoliberal 1980s and 1990s – including the expansion of capital markets in the periphery and integration into the regional trade agreements NAFTA and Mercosur – and the post-1998 financial turmoil. By 2015, however, the three countries had consolidated alternative commercial banking systems: domestic private group dominated (Brazil), mixed (i.e., ownership more evenly divided among public, private domestic, and foreign banks (Argentina), and foreign bank dominated (Mexico). The article traces these alternative outcomes to the power of prereform private financial groups, the virulence of "twin crises" in the transition from fixed to floating exchange rates, and the (contingent) role played by government ideology.