Latin America and Caribbean

La Federación Latinoamericana de Bancos, FELABAN, con su Presidenta Doctora María Mercedes Cuellar y su Secretario General Dr. Giorgio Trettenero Castro y la Corporación Financiera Internacional, IFC, miembro del Grupo del Banco Mundial y su representante Sr. Ary Naïm, Gerente del IFC, firmaron un Memorando de entendimiento, para realizar actividades de cooperación entre las dos organizaciones.

En America Latina, segun leralpymela (2012) la PYME contribuye al empleo con un 64% del mismo y al PIB en un 40% del total. Sin embargo, de acuerdo con el documento Economic Outlook 2013 SME Policies for Structural Change, la PYME encara un dignostico complicado dadas unas condiciones de baja productividad laboral y del capital, remuneracion relativa baja, poca capacidad exportadora y altos costos de entrada a los mercados. De acuerdo con OCDE (2012) la financiacion de la PYME viene principalmente de sus utilidades seguido del credito bancario.

Payments are nowadays widely considered to be gateways for financial inclusion. Withdrawing money or repaying a loan are basic financial transactions without which traditional financial products like credit, savings and insurance would not be possible.

From finding a source of good advice to making use of new technology, there are many things that women in Latin America can do to start and succeed in business. We asked some of the region's most outstanding entrepreneurs for their tips to get ahead.

After decades of directing financial services to micro-enterprise owners, many microfinance institutions are finding that some of these enterprises have grown and that they’re now serving an expanding number of small business owners. With increasing global attention being directed to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), it is fitting to look more deeply at what can be learned from entrepreneurs whose businesses started as microenterprises, grew, and can now be classified as SMEs – with a substantial number of employees. More specifically: Who are these entrepreneurs?

The report seeks to facilitate a deeper understanding of the financial systems in the region, combining aspects of sustainability and financial inclusion. The 2016 report includes information from 20 countries in the region (with a few exceptions) and presents information up to December 2015. The majority of information in the report corresponds to regulated financial intermediaries, except for data in the microcredit section.

The Microscope is produced by The Economist Intelligence Unit, with policy expertise and financial support from The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group, the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion and the MetLife Foundation. Technical support was provided by the Institute for International Finance (IIF) and the Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), a member of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDBG).