Suchergebnisse

Throughout the 1990s and well into the first half of the new century, there was intense activity in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As) in the commercial banking industry of Western Europe. The frequency of M&As diminished when the 2007–2009 financial crisis hit the markets. One of the last of these activities that took place before the full explosion of the 2007–2009 financial crisis was the cross‐border takeover that a consortium made up of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS–England), Fortis (Belgium–Netherlands), and Santander (Spain) carried out of one of the largest banks in the world, ABN AMRO (Netherlands). A few months later, the write‐offs of significant amounts of subprime mortgage securities had affected the balance sheet of RBS and Fortis, with severe strategic consequences. The financial crisis forced RBS and Fortis to withdraw from Latin America but also represented a golden opportunity for Santander to further strengthen its already solid position in the region. This article offers a detailed discussion of these events and concludes with a reflection on the need to further investigate the economic consequences of the participation of foreign banks in emerging countries.

The origins of the world-wide distributed Offshore Financial Centers are related to the surge of the Eurocurrency markets during the 1950s and 1960s. After a first stage of rapid expansion, many of those OFCs reached a consolidation stage and remained, even after most of the original drivers for their creation were no longer present. Their insertion as part of the complex mechanisms of the global financial markets is driven by the high skilled financial services as well as the usually benign fiscal treatment the host countries give to multinational institutions established in their territory. As a consequence of the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis, the more advanced nations have formed a new group called the G20, with the aim to improve the coordination of different dimensions of the international economic environment. In its first reunions the G20 have focused in discussing the changes that are needed at the level of the financial architecture and the regulations that apply to international financial markets, with the intention to minimize the probability of another episode of financial crisis in the future. The changes that are likely to follow the G20 initiatives will change the operating conditions and affect the competitive advantages of the OFCs, but will also represent new opportunities for business. This work briefly explores the historical background of the OFCs phenomenon, analyzes its current situation and discusses its likely future trends, based on the OFCs' most recent environmental changes.

Los profundos cambios estructurales que se realizaron en la economía chilena durante los primeros años de 1980, sentaron las bases para un desarrollo económico robusto y más o menos constante, hasta este momento. Una de las innovaciones más notables del nuevo modelo económico chileno fue la introducción del sistema de pensiones privado conocido como Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones (AFP). Habiendo sido imitado en numerosos países latinoamericanos como Perú, Colombia y México, entre otros, el sistema de pensiones privado ha contribuido significativamente a resolver el problema del pasivo fiscal que tienen los gobiernos de la región con los jubilados. A la par de los beneficios socioeconómicos y la generación de ahorro doméstico en cantidades abundantes, gracias a los cuales fue posible financiar ambiciosos proyectos de infraestructura, construcción, minería, etc., otra dimensión importante de los efectos institucionales de la entrada en operación de las AFP fue su contribución a la consolidación y crecimiento del mercado de capitales de ese país. También, en este trabajo, se analiza el comportamiento de algunas variables características de los fondos de pensiones y su relación con mediciones de capitalización del mercado de capitales chileno. La evidencia sugiere que, el papel de las AFP en la maduración y consolidación del mercado de capitales chileno fue sustantivo. Clasificación JEL: O5, O54.