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Financial integration and foreign banks in Latin America: How do they impact the transmission of external financial shocks?

Global Banking, Financial Markets and Crises

ISBN: 978-1-78350-170-0, eISBN: 978-1-78350-171-7

Publication date: 24 October 2013

Abstract

This chapter explores the impact of international financial integration on credit markets in Latin America, using a cross-country dataset covering 17 countries between 1996 and 2008. It is found that financial integration amplifies the impact of international financial shocks on aggregate credit and interest rate fluctuations. Nonetheless, the net impact of integration on deepening credit markets dominates for the large majority of states of nature. The chapter also uses a detailed bank-level dataset that covers more than 500 banks for a similar time period to explore the role of financial integration – captured through the participation of foreign banks – in propagating external shocks. It is found that interest rates charged and loans supplied by foreign-owned banks respond more to external financial shocks than those supplied by domestically owned banks. This does not hold for all foreign banks. Spanish banks in the sample behave more like domestic banks and do not amplify the impact of foreign shocks on credit and interest rates.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgment

The chapter represents the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any institution including the IDB, its Executive Directors or the countries they represent. We thank Eduardo Cavallo, Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti and seminar participants at the Center for Global Development for their valuable comments, as well as Verónica Gonzales and Cesar Tamayo for superb research assistance. We also thank Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti for providing us with an update of the financial integration data.

Citation

Galindo, A.J., Izquierdo, A. and Rojas-Suarez, L. (2013), "Financial integration and foreign banks in Latin America: How do they impact the transmission of external financial shocks?", Global Banking, Financial Markets and Crises (International Finance Review, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 305-339. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1569-3767(2013)0000014014

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2013 Emerald Group Publishing Limited