83498 Emerging Issues in Financial Development Emerging Issues in Financial Development LESSONS FROM LATIN AMERICA Tatiana Didier and Sergio L. Schmukler, editors © 2014 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 1818 H Street NW, Washington DC 20433 Telephone: 202-473-1000; Internet: www.worldbank.org Some rights reserved 1 2 3 4 17 16 15 14 This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions. Note that The World Bank does not necessarily own each component of the content included in the work. The World Bank therefore does not warrant that the use of the content contained in the work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. The risk of claims resulting from such infringement rests solely with you. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. 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Emerging Issues in Financial Development: Lessons from Latin America. DOI: 10.1596/978-0-8213-9828-9. Washington, DC: World Bank. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 Translations—If you create a translation of this work, please add the following disclaimer along with the attribution: This translation was not created by The World Bank and should not be considered an official World Bank translation. The World Bank shall not be liable for any content or error in this translation. All queries on rights and licenses should be addressed to the Office of the Publisher, The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA; fax: 202-522-2625; e-mail: pubrights@ worldbank.org. ISBN (paper): 978-0-8213-9828-9 ISBN (electronic): 978-0-8213-9956-9 DOI: 10.1596/978-0-8213-9828-9 Cover design: Bill Pragluski, Critical stages, LLC Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Emerging issues in financial development : lessons from Latin America / [edited by] Tatiana Didier and Sergio L. Schmukler. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8213-9828-9 (alk. paper) – ISBN 978-0-8213-9956-9 1. Finance—Latin America. 2. Financial institutions—Latin America. 3. Monetary policy— Latin America. I. Didier, Tatiana. II. Schmukler, Sergio L. III. World Bank. HG185.L3E44 2013 332.098—dc23 2013038521 Latin American Development Forum Series This series was created in 2003 to promote debate, disseminate informa- tion and analysis, and convey the excitement and complexity of the most topical issues in economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the World Bank. The manuscripts chosen for publication represent the highest quality in each institution’s research and activity out- put and have been selected for their relevance to the academic community, policy makers, researchers, and interested readers. Advisory Committee Members Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, Executive Secretary, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, United Nations Inés Bustillo, Director, Washington Office, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, United Nations Augusto de la Torre, Chief Economist, Latin America and the Caribbean Region, World Bank Daniel Lederman, Deputy Chief Economist, Latin America and the Carib- bean Region, World Bank Santiago Levy, Vice President for Sectors and Knowledge, Inter-American Development Bank Roberto Rigobon, President, Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association José Juan Ruiz, Chief Economist and Manager of the Research Depart- ment, Inter-American Development Bank Ernesto Talvi, Director, Brookings Global-CERES Economic and Social Policy in Latin America Initiative Andrés Velasco, Cieplan, Chile v Titles in the Latin American Development Forum Series Entrepreneurship in Latin America: A Step Up the Social Ladder? (2014) by Eduardo Lora and Francesca Castellani, editors Emerging Issues in Financial Development: Lessons from Latin America (2014) by Tatiana Didier and Sergio L. Schmukler, editors New Century, Old Disparities: Gaps in Ethnic and Gender Earnings in Latin America and the Caribbean (2012) by Hugo Ñopo Does What You Export Matter? In Search of Empirical Guidance for Industrial Policies (2012) by Daniel Lederman and William F. Maloney From Right to Reality: Incentives, Labor Markets, and the Challenge of Achieving Universal Social Protection in Latin America and the Caribbean (2012) by Helena Ribe, David Robalino, and Ian Walker Breeding Latin American Tigers: Operational Principles for Rehabilitating Industrial Policies (2011) by Robert Devlin and Graciela Moguillansky New Policies for Mandatory Defined Contribution Pensions: Indus- trial Organization Models and Investment Products (2010) by Gregorio Impavido, Esperanza Lasagabaster, and Manuel García-Huitrón The Quality of Life in Latin American Cities: Markets and Perception (2010) by Eduardo Lora, Andrew Powell, Bernard M. S. van Praag, and Pablo Sanguinetti, editors Discrimination in Latin America: An Economic Perspective (2010) by Hugo Ñopo, Alberto Chong, and Andrea Moro, editors The Promise of Early Childhood Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (2010) by Emiliana Vegas and Lucrecia Santibáñez Job Creation in Latin America and the Caribbean: Trends and Policy Challenges (2009) by Carmen Pagés, Gaëlle Pierre, and Stefano Scarpetta China’s and India’s Challenge to Latin America: Opportunity or Threat? (2009) by Daniel Lederman, Marcelo Olarreaga, and Guillermo E. Perry, editors vii viii titles in the latin american development forum series Does the Investment Climate Matter? Microeconomic Foundations of Growth in Latin America (2009) by Pablo Fajnzylber, Jose Luis Guasch, and J. Humberto López, editors Measuring Inequality of Opportunities in Latin America and the Carib- bean (2009) by Ricardo de Paes Barros, Francisco H. G. Ferreira, José R. Molinas Vega, and Jaime Saavedra Chanduvi The Impact of Private Sector Participation in Infrastructure: Lights, Shadows, and the Road Ahead (2008) by Luis Andres, Jose Luis Guasch, Thomas Haven, and Vivien Foster Remittances and Development: Lessons from Latin America (2008) by Pablo Fajnzylber and J. Humberto López, editors Fiscal Policy, Stabilization, and Growth: Prudence or Abstinence? (2007) by Guillermo Perry, Luis Servén, and Rodrigo Suescún, editors Raising Student Learning in Latin America: Challenges for the 21st Cen- tury (2007) by Emiliana Vegas and Jenny Petrow Investor Protection and Corporate Governance: Firm-level Evidence Across Latin America (2007) by Alberto Chong and Florencio López-de- Silanes, editors Natural Resources: Neither Curse nor Destiny (2007) by Daniel Leder- man and William F. Maloney, editors The State of State Reform in Latin America (2006) by Eduardo Lora, editor Emerging Capital Markets and Globalization: The Latin American Expe- rience (2006) by Augusto de la Torre and Sergio L. Schmukler Beyond Survival: Protecting Households from Health Shocks in Latin America (2006) by Cristian C. Baeza and Truman G. Packard Beyond Reforms: Structural Dynamics and Macroeconomic Vulnerability (2005) by José Antonio Ocampo, editor Privatization in Latin America: Myths and Reality (2005) by Alberto Chong and Florencio López-de-Silanes, editors Keeping the Promise of Social Security in Latin America (2004) by Inder- mit S. Gill, Truman G. Packard, and Juan Yermo Lessons from NAFTA: For Latin America and the Caribbean (2004) by Daniel Lederman, William F. Maloney, and Luis Servén The Limits of Stabilization: Infrastructure, Public Deficits, and Growth in Latin America (2003) by William Easterly and Luis Servén, editors Globalization and Development: A Latin American and Caribbean Per- spective (2003) by José Antonio Ocampo and Juan Martin, editors Is Geography Destiny? Lessons from Latin America (2003) by John Luke Gallup, Alejandro Gaviria, and Eduardo Lora Contributing Authors Deniz Anginer, Economist, Development Research Group, Finance and Private Sector Development, World Bank. Martín Auqui, Head, Bank Supervision Department, Superintendency of Banks, Insurance, and Pension Funds Administrators of Peru. César Calderón, Senior Economist, Financial and Private Sector Develop- ment Vice-Presidency, World Bank. Francisco Ceballos, Consultant, Development Research Group, Macro- economics and Growth Team, World Bank. Mariano Cortés, Lead Financial Sector Economist, Latin America and Caribbean Region, World Bank. Augusto de la Torre, Chief Economist, Office of the Chief Economist for the Latin American and Caribbean Region, World Bank. Katia D’Hulster, Senior Financial Sector Specialist, Financial Systems Department, World Bank. Tatiana Didier, Senior Economist, Office of the Chief Economist for Latin American and Caribbean Region, World Bank. Miquel Dijkman, Senior Financial Sector Specialist, Financial and Private Sector Development, World Bank. Erik Feyen, Senior Financial Specialist, Financial and Private Sector Devel- opment, World Bank. Eva Gutierrez, Lead Financial Sector Specialist, Latin America and Carib- bean Region, World Bank. ix x Contributing Authors Socorro Heysen, Former Superintendent, Superintendency of Banks, Insurance, and Pension Funds Administrators of Peru. Alain Ize, Senior Consultant, Office of the Chief Economist for the Latin American and Caribbean Region, World Bank. Eduardo Levy-Yeyati, Professor, Universidad de Buenos Aires and UTDT; Director, ELYPSIS Partners. María Soledad Martínez Pería, Research Manager, Development Research Group, Finance and Private Sector Development, World Bank. Claudio Raddatz, Economic Research Manager, Central Bank of Chile. Sergio L. Schmukler, Lead Economist, Development Research Group, Macroeconomics and Growth Team, World Bank. Steven A. Seelig, Consultant, Financial Systems Department, World Bank. Luis Servén, Research Manager, Development Research Group, Macro- economics and Growth Team, World Bank. Tomás Williams, PhD student at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. Contents Contributing Authors ix Acknowledgments xxi Abbreviations xxiii Overview 1 Francisco Ceballos, Tatiana Didier, and Sergio L. Schmukler 1 Financial Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: Stylized Facts and the Road Ahead 25 Tatiana Didier and Sergio L. Schmukler 2 Financial Inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean 91 María Soledad Martínez Pería 3 Benchmarking LAC’s Financial Development: The Banking and Equity Gaps 129 Augusto de la Torre, Erik Feyen, and Alain Ize 4 Financial Globalization: Some Basic Indicators for Latin America and the Caribbean 175 Tatiana Didier and Sergio L. Schmukler 5 Financial Globalization in Latin America and the Caribbean: Myth, Reality, and Policy Matters 205 Eduardo Levy-Yeyati and Tomás Williams 6 Institutional Investors and Agency Issues in Latin American Financial Markets: Issues and Policy Options 265 Claudio Raddatz xi xii contents 7 Revisiting the Case for Public Guarantees: A Frictions-Based Approach 317 Deniz Anginer, Augusto de la Torre, and Alain Ize 8 Recent Trends in Banking Supervision in Latin America and the Caribbean 349 Socorro Heysen and Martín Auqui 9 Macroprudential Policies over the Cycle in Latin America 395 César Calderón and Luis Servén 10 Microsystemic Regulation: A Perspective on Latin America and the Caribbean 469 Mariano Cortés, Miquel Dijkman, and Eva Gutierrez 11 Systemic Supervision 501 Steven A. Seelig and Katia D’Hulster Index 535 Boxes 8.1 Analysis of the 2007 World Survey of Bank Regulation and Supervision 351 8.2 Explaining Country Differences in BCP Ratings: An Econometric Analysis 361 10.1 Pros and Cons of Silos versus Universal Banking Licenses 483 Figures 1.1 Market Size of Banks, Bonds, and Equities in Selected Regions and Economies, 1980–2009 32 1.2 Depth of Financial Systems and Income per Capita in Selected Countries and Regions, 1989–2007 35 1.3 Size of Different Financial Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1990–2009 37 1.4 Nature of the Credit by Banks in Selected Countries and Regions, 1980–2009 39 1.5 Dollarization of the Banking System in Selected Countries and Regions, 1991–2009 41 contents xiii 1.6 Concentration of Banking Systems in Selected Countries and Regions, 2000–10 42 1.7 Bond Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1990–2009 43 1.8 Participation in Domestic Private Bond Markets in Selected Regions, 1991–2008 45 1.9 Average Maturity of Bonds at Issuance in Domestic Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1991–2009 47 1.10 Currency Composition of Bonds at Issuance in Domestic Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1991–2009 49 1.11 Activity in Domestic Equity Markets, 1990–2009 51 1.12 Firm Activity in Domestic Equity Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1990–2009 52 1.13 Concentration in Domestic Equity Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1991–2009 53 1.14 Public and Private Bond Markets across LAC7 Countries, 1990–2009 56 1.15 Activity in Domestic Private Bond Markets in LAC7 Countries, 1990–2008 57 1.16 Activity in Domestic Equity Markets across LAC7 Countries, 1990–2009 61 1.17 Relative Size of the New Corporate Governance Segments as a Percentage of Total Bovespa Market, 2001–10 63 1.18 Alternative Markets and Products in Selected Countries and Regions, 2005–10 66 1.19 Providers of Household and Consumer Credit in Chile, 2008 70 1.20 Assets of Pension Funds, Mutual Funds, and Insurance Companies in Selected Countries and Regions, 2000–09 73 1.21 Composition of Pension Fund Portfolios in Latin America, 1999–08 76 1.22 Composition of Mutual Fund Portfolios of Five Countries in LAC, 2000–09 78 2.1 Median Number of Bank Branches and ATMs per 100,000 Adults in Selected Countries and Regions, 2009 95 2.2 Median Number of Bank Deposit Accounts and Loan Accounts per 1,000 Adults in Selected Regions and Economies, 2009 96 xiv contents 2.3 Actual versus Predicted Number of Branches per 100,000 Adults in LAC and Comparators, 2009 97 2.4 Actual versus Predicted Number of ATMs per 100,000 Adults in LAC and Comparators, 2009 98 2.5 Actual versus Predicted Number of Deposits per 1,000 Adults in LAC and Comparators, 2009 99 2.6 Actual versus Predicted Number of Loans per 1,000 Adults in LAC and Comparators, 2009 100 2.7 Minimum Amount to Open and Maintain a Deposit Account, as a Percent of GDP per Capita in Selected Countries and Regions, 2009 101 2.8 Median Checking and Savings Accounts Annual Fees as a Percent of GDP per Capita, 2009 102 2.9 Median Loan Fees as a Percent of GDP per Capita, 2009 103 2.10 Number of Documents Required to Open a Bank Account in Selected Countries and Regions, 2007 104 2.11 Number of Locations to Submit Loan Applications or Open Deposit Accounts in Selected Countries and Regions, 2007 105 2.12 Number of Days Required to Process a Loan Application in Selected Countries and Regions, 2007 106 2.13 Firms’ Use of Bank Accounts in Selected Regions, 2010 109 2.14 Firms’ Use of Credit Products in Selected Regions, 2010 109 2.15 Percentage of Fixed Assets Financed by Banks in Selected Regions, 2010 111 2.16 Percentage of Working Capital Financed by Banks in Selected Regions, 2010 112 2.17 Governments’ de Jure Commitment to Financial Inclusion in Selected Countries and Regions, 2010 119 2.18 Governments’ de Facto Commitment to Financial Inclusion in Selected Countries and Regions, 2010 121 2.19 Adoption of Correspondent Banking and Mobile Branches in Selected Countries and Regions, 2009 122 2.20 Index of Credit Information and Legal Rights in Selected Countries and Regions, 2009 124 3.1 LAC7 Financial Indicators against Benchmark 137 3.2 Average Composition of Private Credit by Type of Credit in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, 1996–2009 142 3.3 Offshore and Onshore Credit to the Private Sector in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, 1994–2009 143 3.4 Real Lending Rate, Real Deposit Rate, and Emerging Market Bond Index: Differentials between LAC7 and contents xv the United States, Five-Year Moving Averages, 1984–2010 146 3.5 Real Credit to the Private Sector and Compounded Real Deposit Rate Index, Medians in Six LAC Countries, 1978–2009 153 3.6 Average Turnover Ratio in Selected Countries and Regions, 2000–10 157 3.7 Domestic and International Value Traded as a Percent of Domestic Market Capitalization in Selected Countries and Regions, 2000–10 158 3.8 Domestic Turnover and Institutional Investors 160 3.9 Domestic Turnover and Corporate Governance in Selected Countries and Regions 162 4.1 Financial Integration in Selected Countries and Regions, 1980–2007 180 4.2 Composition of Foreign Liabilities and Assets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1990–2007 182 4.3 New Capital-Raising Issues in Foreign Markets in Selected Countries, Regions, and Economies, 1991–2008 184 4.4 Relative Size of Foreign Capital Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1990–2009 186 4.5 Equity Trading in Domestic and Foreign Markets by Selected Countries and Regions, 2000–09 189 4.6 Average Maturity of Bonds at Issuance in Foreign Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1991–2008 190 4.7 Ratio of Foreign Currency Bonds to Total Bonds at Issuance in Foreign Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1991–2008 192 4.8 Issuance Activity in Foreign Private Bond Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1991–2008 193 4.9 Issuance Activity in Foreign Equity Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1991–2008 195 4.10 Net Foreign Assets: Equity and Debt Positions in Selected Countries and Regions, 1990–2007 197 5.1 Financial Globalization Measures in Selected Economies, 1990–2007 207 5.2 Changes in de Facto Financial Globalization Measures in Selected Economies, 1990–2007 210 5.3 Different Normalizations for Financial Globalization in Selected Economies, 1999–2007 214 5.4 Financial Globalization Flows in Selected Regions and Economies, 1990–2009 215 xvi contents 5.5 Flows versus Initial Holdings in LAC6 and Emerging Markets, 1990–2007 220 5.6 Consumption Smoothing and Financial Globalization 235 5.7 Portfolio Diversification and Risk Sharing in Selected Countries and Economies, 1999 and 2007 240 5.8 Equity Flows from Global Funds in Selected Regions and Countries, 2005–09 242 5.9 Financial Recoupling 245 5.10 The Global Financial Crisis, the Collapse in Growth, and Financial Globalization, LAC and Selected Economies 254 6.1 Evolution of Main Financial Market Players in Selected Latin American Countries, 1990 and 2000 269 6.2 Composition of Pension Fund Investments in Latin America as Percentage of Total Portfolio, 1999–2004 and 2004–08 276 6.3 Composition of Insurance Companies’ Portfolios in Selected Latin American Countries, 2007 278 6.4 Composition of Mutual Fund Portfolios in Selected Latin American Countries 279 6.5 Prototype Institutional Investor Operation 283 B8.2.1 GDP Square Parameter Value 366 8.1 Percentage of 31 Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean That Were Compliant or Largely Compliant with the Basel Core Principles 367 8.2 Financial Regulation and Supervision Progress in Nine Latin American Countries, 2000–10 371 8.3 BCP Assessments of LAC7 Countries, Average Score and GAP 372 8.4 BCP Assessments of Caribbean Countries, Average Score and GAP 373 8.5 BPC Assessments for the Rest of LAC, Average Score and GAP 374 9.1 Evolution of the Main Features of Credit Cycles over Time, 1980–2009 406 9.2 Main Features of Credit Cycles and Financial Crisis in Industrial Countries, Latin America, and Non-LAC Emerging Markets, 1970–2010 408 9.3 Behavior of Credit and Asset Prices during Downturns in Real Economic Activity: Real Downturns Associated with Banking Crises as Opposed to Other Real Downturns in Selected Countries, 1970–2010 413 contents xvii 9.4 Behavior of Credit and Asset Prices during Downturns in Real Economic Activity: Real Downturns in the Current Cycle in Contrast to Average Historic Real Downturns in Selected Countries, 1970–2010 417 9.5 Unconditional Probability of Booms and Crises in a Sample of 79 Countries, 1970–2010 422 9.6 Behavior of Asset Prices around Peaks in Real Credit during Tranquil and Turmoil Periods, 1970–2010 426 9.7 Behavior of Asset Prices around Peaks in Real Credit in the Current vis-à-vis Previous Cycles, 1970–2010 428 9.8 Lending Cycle and Nonperforming Loans in Spain, 2000–10 440 9.9 Ratio of Banks’ Cumulative Provisions to Total Loans in Spain, 2000–10 441 9.10 Flow of Dynamic Provisions over Banks’ Net Operating Income, 2001–10 442 10.1 Average Number of Banks with More Than 10 Percent of Total Assets of Banking Sector by Region, 2006–09 487 Tables 2.1 Regressions for Deposit and Loan Fees 107 2.2 Household Use of Deposit Accounts in Latin America 113 2.3 Household Use of Credit Accounts in Latin America 115 3.1 Benchmark Model for LAC’s Financial Development Indicators, 1990–99 and 2000–08 134 3.2 LAC Credit Gap by Type of Credit, 1996 and 2007 141 3.3 LAC Credit Gap: A Decomposition by Source 144 3.4 Bank Net Interest Margins, Bank Overheads, and Private Credit 148 3.5 Determinants of Private Credit 149 3.6 LAC Credit Gap: Effect of Changes in Competition and Informality 151 3.7 Number of Crises by Type in Selected Countries and Regions, 1970–2007 152 3.8 Private Credit, Financial Dollarization, and Inflation, 2005–08 154 3.9 Banks, Interest Margins, Financial Soundness, Enabling Environment Indicators, and Credit History in LAC: Growth and Crashes 155 3.10 Trading Activity in LAC 159 xviii contents 3.11 LAC’s Domestic Equity Turnover and Enabling- Environment Indicators 164 5.1 Capital Flows and Initial Holdings by Instrument in LAC and Other Emerging Markets, 1990–2007 218 5.2 Financial Globalization and Financial Development in Emerging Markets and LAC, 1990–2007 228 5.3 Economic Growth and Volatility 233 5.4 Correlations: First Principal Component versus Global Indexes, 2000–09 248 5.5 Comparison of Two Studies on Financial Recoupling and Financial Globalization 250 5.6 Financial Globalization and the Global Financial Crisis 257 6.1 Main Financial Participants in Financial Markets, 1998 and 2008 271 6.2 Market Share of Largest Companies and Funds in Selected Latin American Countries, 1998 and 2008 273 6.3 Ownership Concentration in Selected Latin American Countries, 2008 274 6.4 Fees Charged by Pension Fund Administrators in Selected Latin American Countries, as Percentage of Workers’ Gross Income, 2006 286 6.5 Mutual Fund Fees in Selected Latin American Countries 288 6.6 Share of Deposits in Portfolios of Chilean Pension Fund Administrators, by Pension Fund Category, 2002–05 300 6.7 Share of Deposits in Portfolios of Chilean Mutual Funds, by Type of Fund 300 6.8 Too Big to Fail? Largest Three Institutions in Selected Countries as a Percentage of GDP, 2010–11 304 B8.1.1 Results of Regression Analysis of the Banking Regulation Survey 352 B8.2.1 Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision, 1997 versus 2006 362 B8.2.2 Results of Regression Analysis of the Basel Core Principles Ratings 364 8.1 A Measure of Absolute and Relative Performance 374 8.2 Capital Adequacy Requirements for LAC7 Countries 378 9.1 Main Features of Real and Financial Cycles in a Sample of 79 Countries, 1970–2010 401 9.2 Synchronization of Real and Financial Cycles in a Sample of 79 Countries, 1970–2010 411 9.3 Conditional Probability: Financial Booms and Crises in a Sample of 79 Countries, 1970–2010 424 contents xix 9.4 Probit Analysis: Main Features of the Credit Cycle and Probability of a Crisis in a Sample of 79 Countries, 1970–2010 431 9.5 Probit Analysis: Size of Financial Booms and the Probability of a Crisis in a Sample of 79 Countries, 1970–2010 433 9.6 Some Experiences with Countercyclical Use of Macroprudential Tools in Emerging Markets 437 9.7 Use of Reserve Requirements in Emerging Markets, 1980–2011 446 11.1 A Sample of Macroprudential Measures in Selected Latin American Countries 508 Acknowledgments This book is related to a flagship study conducted at the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) of the World Bank. This book contains a selection of the best background papers com- missioned for that study and reflects the views of their authors, who are considered leading experts in the field. A separate flagship report, titled Financial Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: The Road Ahead, by Augusto de la Torre, Alain Ize, and Sergio Schmukler, binds together the key messages from these background papers and provides some policy recommendations. That report reflects the views of its authors and is at times different from the messages in this book. The flagship study as a whole benefited from very detailed and substantive comments from many colleagues and experts, including: Aquiles Almansi, Timothy Brennan, Anderson Caputo Silva, Jorge Chan-Lau, Loic Chiquier, Martin Cihak, Stijn Claessens, Tito Cordella, Luis Cortavarría, Asli Demirguc- Kunt, Eduardo Fernández-Arias, Joaquín Gutierrez, Olivier Hassler, Tamuna Loladze, Marialisa Motta, Aditya Narain, Andrew Powell, Robert Rennhack, Roberto Rocha, Liliana Rojas Suárez, Heinz Rudolph, Pablo Sanguinetti, Sophie Sirtaine, Ilias Skamnelos, Craig Thorburn, and Rodrigo Valdés. In addition, we received very useful feedback from participants at several presentations held at GDN 12th Annual Global Development Conference (Bogota), NIPFP-DEA (New Delhi), Bank of Korea (Seoul), ADBI (Tokyo), Bank of Spain (Madrid), LACEA 2011 (Santiago de Chile), Launch Event at Columbia University (New York), CAF-World Bank Workshop (Bogota), IMF (Washington, D.C.), American University (Washington, D.C.), Cen- tral Bank of Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), Casa das Garças (Rio de Janeiro), Foro Internacional de Economía (Lima), ITAM (Mexico DF), Central Bank of Uruguay (Montevideo), Central Bank of Paraguay (Asuncion), Ministry of Finance (Asuncion), ABIF (Santiago de Chile), Central Bank of Chile (Santiago de Chile), and University of Chile (Santiago de Chile). The flagship study was also guided by an advisory group of LAC finan- cial policy makers, who provided substantive comments. The members of the advisory group were: • From Brazil: Alexandre Tombini (Governor, Central Bank) and Luis Pereira da Silva (Deputy Governor for International Affairs, Central Bank). xxi xxii Acknowledgments • From Chile: Luis Céspedes (former Head of Research, Central Bank). • From Colombia: Ana Fernanda Maiguashca (Regulation Director, Ministry of Finance). • From Costa Rica: Francisco de Paula Gutiérrez (former Governor, Central Bank). • From Jamaica: Brian Wynter (Governor, Bank of Jamaica) and Brian Langrin (Chief Economist, Financial Stability Unit, Bank of Jamaica). • From Mexico: Guillermo Babatz Torres (President, National Bank- ing and Securities Commission) and Carlos Serrano (Vice President of Regulatory Policies, National Banking and Securities Commission). • From Peru: Javier Poggi (Chief Economist, Superintendency of Banking, Insurance and Private Persion Funds) and Manuel Luy (Head of the Economic Research Department, Superintendency of Banking, Insur- ance and Private Pension Funds). • From Uruguay: Mario Bergara (Governor, Central Bank). Francisco Ceballos did an invaluable job of coordinating and put- ting together the material for this book. We also benefited from excellent research assistance at different stages of the project provided by Matías Antonio, Mariana Barrera, Patricia Caraballo, Francisco Ceballos, Luciano Cohan, Juan José Cortina, Juan Miguel Cuattromo, Federico Filippini, Ana Gazmuri, Julian Genoud, Julian Kozlowski, Laura Malatini, Lucas Nuñez, Paula Pedro, Virginia Poggio, Juliana Portella de Aguiar Vieira, Gustavo Saguier, Mauricio Tejada, Patricio Valenzuela, Luis Fernando Vieira, Tomás Williams, and Gabriel Zelpo. For competent administra- tive assistance, we thank Erika Bazan Lavanda and Ruth Delgado. For financial support we are grateful to the LAC region, the Spanish Fund for Latin America and the Caribbean (SFLAC), and the Knowledge for Change Program (KCP). Abbreviations AFP Administradoras Privadas De Fondos De Pensiones AMC asset management company ASBA Asociación de Supervisores Bancarios de las Americas ATM automated teller machines AUM assets under management BCBS Basel Committee on Banking Supervision BCP Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision BRS Survey of Bank Regulation and Supervision around the World CAF Corporación Andina de Fomento CDS credit default swap CGAP Consultative Group to Assist the Poor CNBV National Banking and Securities Commission (Mexico) CP core principle CRR cash reserve ratio DR depository receipt DTI debt service to income DXY U.S. dollar index EMBI Emerging Market Bond Index ETF exchange-traded fund FDI foreign direct investment FDIC Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation FM frontier markets FPC first principal component FSAP Financial Sector Assessment Program GDP gross domestic product GDPPC gross domestic product per capita GMM Generalized Method of Moments G-7 Group of Seven HY high yield LAC Latin America and the Caribbean LMF Lane and Milesi-Ferretti LTV loan-to-value ratio marcap market capitalization xxiii xxiv Abbreviations MSCI Morgan Stanley Capital International MOU memorandum of understanding NAFIN Nacional Financiera NGO nongovernmental organization PC1 first principal component PCE peripheral core economy PFA pension fund administrator PPP purchasing power parity SIFI systemically important financial institution SBS Superintendencia De Banca, Seguros y AFP del Peru SME small and medium enterprise VaR value at risk Overview Emerging Issues in Financial Development: Lessons from Latin America Francisco Ceballos, Tatiana Didier, and Sergio L. Schmukler Introduction Since the 1990s, financial systems around the world, and especially those in developing countries, have gained in soundness, depth, and diversity, prompted in part by a series of financial sector and macroeconomic reforms aimed at fostering a market-driven economy in which finance plays a central role. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has been one The authors work for the World Bank in, respectively, the Development Eco- nomics Research Group (pancho.ceballos@gmail.com), the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean Region (tdidier@worldbank. org), and the Development Economics Research Group (sschmukler@worldbank. org). The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the World Bank. 1 2 emerging issues in financial development of the regions at the forefront of these changes, and it serves as a good lab- oratory for seeing where the challenges in financial development lie.1 After a history of recurrent instability and crises (a LAC trademark), financial systems in the region appear well poised for rapid expansion. Indeed, since the last wave of financial crises that swept through the region in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the size of banking systems has increased (albeit from a low base), local currency bond markets have developed (both in volume and reach over the yield curve), stock markets have expanded, and derivative markets—particularly currency derivatives—have grown and multiplied. Institutional investors have become more important, making the financial system more complex and diversified. Moreover, impor- tant progress has been made in financial inclusion, particularly through the expansion of payments, savings, and credit services for lower-income households and microenterprises.2 As evidence of their new soundness and resilience, LAC financial systems, with the exception of those in some Caribbean countries, weathered the global financial crisis of 2008–09 remarkably well. The progress in financial development in LAC no doubt reflects gov- ernments’ substantial efforts to provide an enabling environment. This includes lower macroeconomic volatility, more independent and better- anchored currencies, increased financial liberalization, lower currency mismatches and foreign debt exposures, enhanced effectiveness of regula- tion and supervision, and notable improvements in the underlying market infrastructure (trading, payments, custody, clearing, and settlement, for example).3 Despite all the gains in financial development, the intensity of financial sector reforms implemented over the past 20 years in many countries has not led to the expected increase in the size and depth of their financial systems. For example, LAC countries went through an aggressive finan- cial liberalization process and worked vigorously to adopt internationally recognized regulatory and supervisory standards. Nonetheless, in many respects, the actual size and depth of LAC’s financial systems remain underdeveloped by international comparisons—notably, bank credit to the private sector and liquidity in the domestic equity market. The expan- sion of bank credit, for instance, has been biased in favor of financing consumption rather than production. Furthermore, the provision of long- term finance—whether to households, firms, or infrastructure—remains below what many economists and policy makers desire. This book studies the recent history of financial sector development and reforms in the LAC region and compares it to other developing and developed countries to shed light on the key obstacles to financial develop- ment, both past and future. This study is particularly timely in the wake of the global financial crisis that began in 2008, as our assumptions about the underpinnings of efficient and well-functioning markets undergo close scrutiny. The challenges for policy makers of ensuring a future of sustained overview 3 development in a more globalized and possibly more turbulent world may have little to do with the challenges they faced in the past. Rather than going into sector-specific issues, the book focuses on the main archi- tectural issues, overall perspectives, and interconnections. Its value thus hinges on its holistic view of the development process, its broad coverage of the financial services industry (not just banking), its emphasis on com- parisons and benchmarking, its systemic perspective, and its explicit effort to incorporate the lessons from the recent global financial crisis. This book builds on and complements several overview studies on financial develop- ment both in LAC and in the developing world more broadly that have been published in the past decade, including those by the World Bank.4 This book is related to a separate Flagship Report entitled Financial Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: The Road Ahead, by Augusto de la Torre, Alain Ize, and Sergio Schmukler.5 Although a reader may find similarities between this book and the Flagship Report, they complement each other in important ways. While much of the material for the Flagship Report draws on material in this book, the report ultimately reflects the views of its authors and thus differs at times from the messages here. This book selects the best background papers and reflects the views of their authors, who stand as experts in their individual fields, thus pro- viding the reader with a set of valuable differing perspectives. The book also covers material not contained in the Flagship Report or anywhere else in the literature. It considerably extends the analyses and discussions of important topics for LAC’s financial development, such as globaliza- tion, access to finance, the role of institutional investors, macroprudential policies, and systemic regulation and supervision. Furthermore, it covers additional aspects of the financial development process and focuses on the broader set of LAC countries. Finally, the audiences who benefit from the two products are likely to differ. While the Flagship Report will certainly benefit practitioners, policy makers, and specialized reporters, this book is likely to be of interest to academics and experts in the field eager to learn more about specific aspects of financial development in LAC that are relevant to other regions as well. Because the papers are presented as separate, self-contained chapters, the topics under discussion will be much more accessible to readers with varying interests. The chapters in this book cover different issues related to financial development in LAC. Chapters 1 through 5 attempt to ascertain where the region’s financial development lies, analyzing in detail some of the reasons and policy implications underlying its gaps in banking depth and equity liquidity, as well as the links between financial development and financial globalization. Chapters 6 and 7 consider two themes that are central to the region’s financial development: long-term finance and the role of the state in risk bearing. Chapters 8 through 11 deal with regula- tion and supervision, first taking stock of the progress in the region and then analyzing the challenges LAC faces on three main facets of systemic 4 emerging issues in financial development oversight: macroprudential policy, microsystemic regulation, and systemic supervision. Taken together, the chapters offer a comprehensive analysis of the status, prospects, and challenges of sustainable financial development in the region. The rest of the overview is structured as follows. Section 2 provides a very brief account of the different views that guided the financial devel- opment process in the LAC region and in many other countries around the world, putting in perspective the different chapters in the book while assessing LAC’s current status. Section 3 describes the chapters related to where LAC stands in its financial development process. Section 4 sum- marizes the chapters that deal with promoting some aspects of financial development. Section 5 describes the chapters on regulation and supervi- sion. Section 6 discusses some of the policy implications. Perspectives on Financial Development Two major LAC-specific historical experiences were critical to shaping the conventional wisdom on financial development in the region over the past 20 years. The first is the state dirigisme over the financial sec- tor that dominated the continent during the era of import-substitution industrialization, especially during the 1960s and 1970s; that experience resulted in atrophied financial systems and large fiscal costs associated with mismanaged public banks. The second is the painful experience with the region’s recurrent and often devastating currency, debt, and banking crises, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s. These crises illustrate the dangers that poor macroeconomic fundamentals pose for globalized financial systems. They set back financial development by years and had major adverse effects on growth, employment, and equity.6 Moreover, as the 1990s unfolded, the wave of financial liberalization that heralded the shift away from state interventionism interacted in perverse ways with underlying macroeconomic vulnerabilities, exacerbating financial instabil- ity. This led the reform agenda to put an increasing emphasis on regulatory frameworks and the institutional enabling environment—an agenda on which LAC has embarked with great vigor, particularly since the second half of the 1990s. These experiences—together with a worldwide intellectual shift in favor of free market economics—gave rise to a relatively strong consensus in the region on a financial development policy agenda based on four basic endeavors. The first was to get the macro right, which reflected the convic- tion that unlocking the process of financial development had to start with macroeconomic stability. It entailed, in particular, the cultivation of local currency as a reliable store of value that could underpin financial con- tracts. Over the past 20 years, ensuring stable and low inflation has thus become the first order of business in financial development. In addition, overview 5 fiscal reform and the development of local currency public bond markets were viewed as natural complements to monetary reform. The second endeavor was to let financial markets breathe. Initially, this was mainly manifested in a rapid process of financial liberalization.7 Subsequently, it incorporated efforts to strengthen the multiple facets (institutional, informational, and contractual) of the enabling environ- ment. All of this was accompanied by efforts to enhance market discipline, which included a sharp reduction or elimination of the direct intervention of the state in financial activities, including the state’s tendency to move quickly to bail out troubled institutions. The third endeavor was to converge toward Basel-inspired standards of prudential regulation and supervision. Before the global financial crisis, the focus was on idiosyncratic risks, not on systemic risks. The endeavor also favored limiting the perimeter of prudential regulation to deposit- taking institutions. The underlying assumptions were that the soundness of individual financial intermediaries implied the soundness of the finan- cial system and that well-informed and sophisticated players outside the core banking system would discipline each other. The fourth endeavor was to promote the broadening of access to financial services for the underserved (that is, small farmers, microen- trepreneurs, small and medium enterprises, or SMEs, and low-income households). This was added to the policy agenda but only more recently and was spurred by enthusiastic support from multilateral development banks, nongovernmental organizations, and foundations (for example, the Gates Foundation). It was also boosted by the microfinance revolution, in which LAC played a prominent role.8 As the LAC region revisits its policy tenets, this book provides an in-depth stock taking of its financial systems and a forward-looking assessment of the main financial development issues. Many questions still remain on the extent and type of financial development. However, the reforms undertaken to secure macroeconomic stability and to promote market-friendly policies seem to have at least paid off handsomely during the recent global financial crisis.9 In contrast to the G-7 countries, whose financial systems nearly collapsed, and, more important, to the troubled economic and financial history of LAC, no domestic banking system crisis occurred in the region.10 Although the global financial crisis did not wreak havoc on LAC’s financial system, it has raised questions about the process of financial development. It illustrated that apparent macroeconomic stability (for example, the “great moderation” of low inflation and output volatility, accompanied by low interest rates) can potentially contribute to unsustain- able financial development. The crisis showed that market discipline can fail even in financially developed economies, in the land of well-informed and sophisticated agents (such as commercial bank treasurers, investment bankers, fund managers, stock brokers, derivatives traders, and rating 6 emerging issues in financial development agencies). The crisis also demonstrated that the Basel-inspired oversight program had major flaws, partly because it was based on the great fallacy of composition—the soundness of the parts does not guarantee the sound- ness of the whole. The crisis also suggested that the links between financial stability and financial development are much more complex than previ- ously thought. Finally, it raised red flags on policies that seek to broaden financial access too aggressively, uncovering significant tensions between financial inclusion (for example, the drive to make every household a homeowner) and financial sustainability. Researchers and policy makers, therefore, are left to reassess these four endeavors. As the global financial crisis has taught us, the reassessment of the financial development process needs to consider at least two fundamental themes: first, that the financial development process itself can lead to financial instability and, second, that, to avoid such instability, the rela- tionship between financial markets and the state needs to be rethought. Both themes are of significant and increasing relevance to LAC countries. The region’s financial systems have experienced strong expansionary pres- sures, not least due to surging capital inflows, and this has posed risks of financial excesses and bubbles. In turn, the premium on quality financial development policies has been raised, thereby highlighting the need for a more effective complementarity between the role of markets and the role of the state. As summarized below, the discussion of these issues in subse- quent chapters will help readers understand not only the current state of LAC’s financial development process but also the state of its policy and reform agenda. What Is the State of Financial Development in LAC? Chapters 1 and 2 provide a foundation for the subsequent discussions by offering a comprehensive description of the current scope, depth, and composition of financial systems in LAC countries. Chapter 1, by Tatiana Didier and Sergio Schmukler, systematically reviews the current state of financial development across seven of the larg- est countries in LAC, the so-called LAC7 group, comprising Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay, and compares it with other regions and countries. Over the past two decades, financial systems in the region have become both more complex and deeper along several dimensions in ways that are consistent with the broad patterns described above. There has been a transition from a mostly bank-based model to a more complete and interconnected one in which bond and equity markets have increased in both absolute and relative sizes, institu- tional investors (mutual funds, pension funds, and insurance companies) have played a more central role, and the overall number and sophistica- tion of participants have increased. Significantly, the strengthening of overview 7 monetary management has allowed financing to shift toward the longer term and into local currency. The authors also present some evidence that LAC’s financial sys- tems remain underdeveloped—relative to other emerging and developed regions—in some key respects. The stagnation of domestic bank financing has only been partially offset by other types of credit. Credit to households (that is, consumption financing) has expanded at the expense of firm and housing finance. Bond markets have developed but still remain small by several standards, especially private bond markets. Moreover, domestic equity markets in LAC have remained illiquid and highly concentrated, and insurance is still relatively underdeveloped. While institutional inves- tors have become sophisticated and large, a significant share of their port- folios continues to be allocated to government bonds and bank deposits. There is nonetheless a large heterogeneity within the LAC region. While a lack of funding does not seem to be a major problem in LAC (indeed, some countries have imposed or are considering controls on cross-country capital flows), there is still progress to be made in broaden- ing and deepening participation. A central concern about participation— which has received much attention from academics, policy makers, and practitioners—involves extending the reach of financial services not only to SMEs but also to lower-income groups that have historically been excluded from the financial ecosystem. Chapter 2, by María Soledad Martínez Pería, surveys the topic of finan- cial inclusion in LAC. To distinguish access to financial services from use of financial services, she analyzes indicators that capture not only supply but also demand. At first glance, indicators of access to and use of banking services in LAC suggest that the region lags developed and other develop- ing economies. However, this lag shrinks when income level and popula- tion density are accounted for, suggesting that LAC7 is not obviously underperforming its peers. As with domestic and international financial development, LAC7 countries rank ahead of their neighbors in the region both in access to and use of financial services. Slack demand appears to be an important reason for the low use of banking services, with most households claiming either an absence of funds or joblessness as the main reason for not holding a savings account. Distrust of banks and aversion to the risks of bank borrowing and debt more broadly also seem to influence the extent to which firms and indi- viduals use banking services in LAC. Financial fees could also be playing a role, since the analysis indicates that these tend to be higher in Latin America than in other regions. In addition, the author provides a panorama of the prospects in this arena by considering the extent of public policy concerns toward financial inclusion issues. A majority of governments in LAC7 have adopted poli- cies to promote financial inclusion, such as mandating low-fee accounts, using the banking sector to channel government transfers, or allowing for 8 emerging issues in financial development correspondent bank arrangements and for the use of mobile branches. The attention given to this agenda has, however, been spottier in the rest of the region. In general, LAC7 governments appear to be doing more along this dimension than those in Eastern Europe and in developed countries. Areas that still deserve some attention include SME financing, bringing down the cost of financial services, and reforming creditor rights. Chapter 3, by Augusto de la Torre, Erik Feyen, and Alain Ize, comple- ments the analyses in chapters 1 and 2 by putting the evidence in perspec- tive relative to the overall process of financial development. To the extent that the development path of financial systems indeed generally follows the same broad dynamic patterns across countries and over time, a sys- tematic benchmarking methodology using a broad array of cross-country financial indicators is possible. This approach sheds light on the relative standing of key measures of a country’s (or group of countries’) financial development, given not just its level of overall economic development (as proxied by income per capita) but also the structural factors (largely exogenous to policy) that may play a role in financial development, such as country size and demographic structure. The gaps in financial develop- ment, with respect to developed countries and other relevant developing countries, might then be interpreted as reflecting deficits in policy and policy-shaped institutions, as well as in other areas. Consistent with the findings in chapter 1, the analysis in chapter 3 shows that LAC7 is broadly on track with respect to many financial devel- opment indicators but lags substantially in some important ones relative to other relevant countries. In particular, there is a substantial “banking gap.” Banking depth indicators (deposits and private credit) lag signifi- cantly, and the gap has widened over time. Bank efficiency, as measured by net interest rate margins, also lags, but this gap has shrunk. There is also an important “equity gap.” While LAC countries are approximately on track on the size of their stock markets, they trail far behind on the liquidity of their domestic markets, and such gaps have been widening. Overall, these gaps are of concern because they coincide with some of the financial indicators that have been shown to be the best predictors of future growth in output.11 On the banking gap, the findings in the chapter indicate that it reflects LAC’s turbulent financial history to a large extent. The region has not yet fully recovered from the repeated credit crashes of the past. This puts the spotlight squarely on the need to ensure financial sustainability through an appropriate mix of oversight and development-oriented policies. But, consistent with the findings in chapter 2, a limited demand for credit (that is, a lack of bankable projects)—possibly reflecting LAC’s mediocre out- put growth—also seems to explain a sizable portion of the gap. Here, the possible policy responses go much beyond the financial sector, of course. Growth-inducing financial policies, such as those that facilitate longer- maturity loans for SMEs or infrastructure projects, should also be called overview 9 for. In addition, overcoming the banking gap has to do with addressing the remaining agency frictions. Interestingly, in LAC the main residual bottle- neck is contractual (contract enforcement, creditor rights) rather than informational. The degree of competition (or lack thereof) and extent of informality in LAC vis-à-vis its benchmarks do not seem to account for a significant portion of the gap. Of course, this is not to say that a consider- able improvement in these aspects would not have positive effects on the depth of the banking systems. In relation to LAC’s domestic trade in equities, the analysis in chapter 3 indicates that both agency and collective frictions contribute to explaining the observed gap. As also argued in chapters 1 and 4, the substitution of domestic markets by foreign ones under the pull of a bigger (more liq- uid and connected) marketplace is a first obvious explanation. However, because similar patterns are not observed in other regions, the obvious issue is why it may be true in LAC. While high concentration may also have played a role, determining the direction of causality is tricky, as a lack of liquidity also hinders the deconcentration of equity holdings. Chapter 1 argues that the large preponderance of buy-and-hold institutional inves- tors also seems to have played some role, as further discussed in chapter 6, as LAC’s turbulent history probably did as well, much as in the case of the banking gap. However, it is still puzzling that equity markets have not done better in recent years, despite the improved macrofinancial stability. Chapter 4, by Tatiana Didier and Sergio Schmukler, explores the tight interplay between the financial development and the financial global- ization processes. The evidence in the chapter shows that over the past decade, international financial integration has continued to increase in the developed and, to a lesser extent, most of the developing world. In the case of LAC, the financial internationalization process stabilized somewhat during the first decade of the 2000s, in contrast to the region’s leading role in this process during the 1990s. Nevertheless, by the end of 2010, the region still showed a degree of financial globalization comparable to that of other emerging regions. This increased financial globalization has been a widespread two-way process, with greater participation not only of foreigners in local markets but also of residents in foreign markets. Foreigners seem to act mostly as investors in emerging markets, as they typically do not seek financ- ing in these markets. Emerging market residents, however, use foreign markets as investors as well as borrowers, tapping a much wider range of instruments. The evidence hints at a gradual but significant change in the nature of new bond and equity financing by the private sector in emerg- ing countries and in LAC7 in particular, where international markets have become more important relative to domestic markets. Such a shift has been accompanied by increased liquidity abroad, possibly suggesting a shift of equity trading to foreign markets as well. However, in general most domestic borrowers seldom tap into foreign capital markets—which 10 emerging issues in financial development continue to show high concentration, with a few firms capturing the bulk of the financing activity—despite the fact that financing in foreign markets still boasts some positive developments, such as longer maturities and even incipient bond issuance denominated in local currency. In stark contrast, bond financing by the public sector has been shifting to local markets. These trends in the use of foreign markets by the public and private sec- tors of emerging economies in fact reinforce the developments in domestic markets documented in chapter 1. A final interesting feature of the recent financial globalization process is the safer form of financial integration arising from the changing struc- ture of external assets and liabilities. Emerging economies have typically become net creditors in debt assets and net debtors in equity assets. Such a composition of foreign assets and liabilities is particularly beneficial in times of turbulence, as balance sheet effects now typically work in their favor. In the case of LAC, the region has accompanied the global process of safer financial integration with lower debt liabilities and higher reserve assets, although equity liabilities continue to be dominated on average by foreign direct investment rather than by portfolio equity, consistent with the shortcomings of the local equity markets. Such a change in the struc- ture of the external assets and liabilities might play a key contributing role in avoiding the downside risks of financial globalization. Chapter 5, by Eduardo Levy-Yeyati and Tomás Williams also discusses the issue of financial globalization. Because of the way it is often measured, financial globalization is generally perceived to have grown in recent years, according to the available evidence. Contrary to this conventional belief, the authors argue that during the first decade of the 2000s, financial globalization both in LAC and in other emerging markets has grown only marginally and much more slowly than in more developed countries. In particular, once price effects are taken into account, the trend of growth in cross-border equity holdings weakens considerably, in contrast with the view of a proactive relocation of international capital toward emerging markets and in line with the discussion in chapter 4. Moreover, the authors argue that international portfolio diversification (a welfare-improving source of consumption smoothing) has been, at best, limited and declining. The chapter also revisits the recent empirical literature on the implica- tions of financial globalization for local market deepening, international risk diversification, and financial contagion more broadly. Financial global- ization has indeed fostered domestic market deepening in good times, and it has been a driving force in the process of developing on-shore financial intermediation and financial de-dollarization. Hence, financial globaliza- tion has played a supporting role in the buildup of the growing resilience of the developing world, particularly in LAC7 countries. However, financial globalization does not seem to have yielded the dividends of consumption smoothing predicted by the theoretical literature. Moreover, the procycli- cal nature of portfolio flows, which typically retrench to core markets overview 11 during episodes of turmoil, may amplify the effects of global business cycles on the emerging world in an undesirable way. Promoting Financial Development Chapters 6 and 7 shift gears and narrow the focus on two issues at the core of the sustainable financial development process: long-term finance and the risk-bearing role of the state. While LAC has made much progress in lengthening contracts, notably the maturity structure of public bonds as documented in chapter 1, much remains to be done. For example, policy makers had hoped that defined-contribution pension funds would help lengthen maturities and overcome the lack of liquidity, but, unfortunately, their portfolios continue to be concentrated in public sector bonds, short- duration bank deposits, and highly liquid securities. At the same time, with the demise of the monoline insurers, the public sector remains the only entity able to provide, guarantee, or enhance long-term debt finance. All of this is taking place in an environment in which the region is awash with investable funds, which is all the more puzzling. Clearly, going long is harder than often believed. Chapter 6, by Claudio Raddatz, delves into this topic with a particu- lar focus on institutional investors, discussing important issues such as the implications of their investment style on available assets, conflicts of interest between individual investors and the institutions channeling their savings, and the design of regulatory frameworks. As documented in chapter 1, nonbank financial intermediaries, such as pension funds, mutual funds, and insurance companies, are playing an increasing role in credit provision and asset management in LAC, with bonds and equities becoming more prominent sources of financing for firms and means of investment for households. The ensuing increase in complexity of finan- cial instruments and in the intermediation process gives rise to a num- ber of agency problems that are unfamiliar to individuals accustomed to operating in bank-based systems. The author describes these problems and discusses their relevance for LAC countries in light of the current (but evolving) financial environment. He also takes stock of the lessons learned in countries where these intermediaries have become systemically important (most notably the United States). The evidence and discussion suggest that the incentives faced by insti- tutional investors and other financial intermediaries matter for their asset allocation, including their risk-taking behavior and their investment hori- zon. In LAC, these incentives have so far led investors to favor low-risk and short-term assets. While restrictions to the supply of investable assets do not seem to explain the results fully, regulatory incentives appear to play an important role vis-à-vis direct and indirect market incentives, and especially for pension funds. These incentives are particularly noticeable 12 emerging issues in financial development in the way Chile’s pension funds coordinate investment decisions around industry benchmarks. It points to the fact that the regulation of institu- tional investors has to deal with (perhaps unanticipated) trade-offs in an environment marked by asymmetric information and conflicts of interest. Central among these trade-offs is the regulators’ short-term monitoring, which is intended to anticipate potentially large negative outcomes, and the ability and means of institutional investors to take advantage of (socially desirable) investments with high long-run but volatile short-run returns. Finally, the author emphasizes the key role that conflicts of interest and related lending play in the region. Concentrated corporate ownership structures and the prevalence of financial conglomerates in several orbits of financial services make these issues particularly important for Latin American countries. The predominance of financial conglomerates in the LAC region also brings too-big-to-fail considerations to the forefront of the policy debate. Arguably, even in the presence of firewalls, troubles in one segment of the operations of a financial conglomerate may spread to other segments through contingent credit lines, equity values, or brand associa- tion, creating a systemic impact. A systemic approach to regulation that considers these interconnections would thus help reduce the possibility of “tunneling” (that is, the movement of resources within a given corporate structure from firms where the controller has relatively few cash flow rights to firms where those are higher), regulatory arbitrage, and systemic shocks to the financial system, all of which work against investors and in favor of the owners of the conglomerates. Chapter 10 returns to the issue of systemic supervision. Chapter 7, by Deniz Anginer, Augusto de la Torre, and Alain Ize, revis- its the role of the state in financial risk bearing, a topic that has gained greater visibility in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. The authors analyze this theme from the perspective of the underlying frictions. It starts by reminding the reader that over the past half-century or so, LAC has undergone large paradigm swings, from state dirigisme to market laissez- faire, and eventually to a more eclectic view. Throughout these phases, agency frictions and social externalities permeated the debate. At the same time, a parallel debate developed on public banks’ second-tier role in the provision of guarantees. The authors thus review in some depth the conceptual justifications for public financial risk bearing. They first argue that risk aversion is central to guarantees more broadly. Without risk aversion, no guaran- tee program, whether private or public, can be justified. In a context of risk aversion among financial system participants, externalities alone justify subsidies but not guarantees, whereas agency frictions alone jus- tify private but not public guarantees. Thus, public guarantees can be justified only in the presence of risk aversion and agency frictions (that concentrate risk through skin-in-the-game requirements) when coupled with collective frictions (that limit the scope for spreading that risk among overview 13 market participants). Hence, it is the state’s natural advantage in resolving collective action (instead of agency) frictions that justifies public (rather than private) guarantees. The state is then naturally called to play to its strengths to complement markets rather than to substitute for them. The authors conclude that focusing on the role of the state from this perspective raises a policy agenda that is as broad as it is thorny. A key implication is that states, before providing guarantees, should first exhaust efforts to spread risk through private guarantees and private risk sharing. The state can promote participation without taking risk itself through policies that directly ease the frictions (where, for instance, a develop- ment bank acts itself as coordinator) or through policies that mandate or gently coerce participation, as in the case of the mandatory contributions to privately administered pension funds. Given the positive externalities, the state can also use well-targeted subsidies as part of such interventions. Dealing with Prudential Oversight LAC’s turbulent macrofinancial history has also stimulated efforts to over- haul regulation and supervision—that is, to improve prudential oversight. Indeed, when many developed country supervisors were bent on easing inter- mediation through more market-friendly regimes and less expensive capital and liquidity buffers, many LAC countries moved in the opposite direction. Chapter 8, by Socorro Heysen and Martín Auqui, shows that prog- ress has also been uneven, both within and across regions. They conduct an econometric analysis of assessments of compliance with Basel Core Principles over the past 13 years and find that LAC7 countries generally perform better than other countries in the LAC region, even after control- ling for different levels of economic development. The analysis also suggests that there are important differences across supervision areas, with some issues understandably more difficult to tackle than others. Two basic issues concerning the legal framework—the independence of bank supervisors and their legal protection—emerge as still problematic in many LAC countries. Moreover, there is some uneven- ness on regulatory issues as well. Many countries have still not fully met the minimum Basel I international standards on capital requirements, and the implementation of Basel II has been limited in the region. While LAC7 countries have recently taken some preliminary though important steps toward compliance with Basel III reforms, the rest of the region is markedly silent on its implementation. However, in many areas, including on the regulation of credit risk, there has been substantial progress. On the basic supervisory issues, LAC7 countries again tend to perform better than the rest of the LAC region, suggesting that effective implementation might be a problem mostly in the lower-income countries. Nonetheless, important progress has been made across the region, including a gradual 14 emerging issues in financial development shift to risk-based supervision. Finally, on consolidated and cross-border supervision, a complex issue that to some extent prefigures the challenges of systemic oversight, most LAC countries have had a harder time. While LAC7 again exceeds its benchmark, opaque conglomerate structures, high ownership concentration, and insufficient cooperation and coordination among supervisors combine to make the challenge even more difficult. Effective cross-border cooperation also remains a major challenge, all the more so in LAC, given the importance of foreign banking. All in all, LAC now has a much better foundation on which to build and deal with the new challenges of systemic oversight in the aftermath of the global financial crisis—namely, connecting the parts and understand- ing how one may affect the other, building up a proactive capacity to deal with unstable market dynamics, and thinking about developmental and prudential policies as two sides of the same coin. In view of lead times and longer-term dynamics, now is the time to think about the future. LAC seems well poised for the road ahead. Its prudential buffers are currently high, supervisors across the region have made important strides toward improving traditional oversight, and LAC’s numerous past crises have given its supervisors a definite edge. Chapter 9, by César Calderón and Luis Servén, reviews the potential benefits and challenges of macroprudential policy in LAC. The chapter starts with a thorough comparative analysis of financial cycles around the world. The empirical evidence shows that LAC credit cycles are generally more protracted and abrupt than those in other emerging and developed countries. Likewise, cyclical fluctuations in bank leverage, housing prices, and real exchange rates are also more pronounced in LAC, especially in the downturn phases of the cycle. The unconditional probability of banking crises and the frequency of crash landings following lending booms are also higher in LAC. These facts echo the history of macroeco- nomic instability in the region. They imply that management of financial risks over the cycle represents an even larger policy concern in LAC than elsewhere. In considering policies for managing systemic risk over the cycle, the authors argue that the main objective should not be to eliminate the finan- cial cycle, but rather to make the financial system more resilient while tackling the externalities that amplify cycles and promote an excessive buildup of risk. A high priority should thus be placed on objectives such as removing any existing procyclicality in macroeconomic policies and traditional regulations, building financial system resilience to cyclical fluc- tuations, or dampening the cyclical fluctuations themselves. However, the authors note the need for much more research and testing. How to measure the buildup of risk is a particularly difficult challenge. In emerg- ing regions, such as LAC, very close monitoring of credit accelerations is likely to be needed to disentangle hazardous credit booms from desirable long-term financial deepening. More broadly, the quest for developing a overview 15 robust macroprudential policy framework faces a number of other unre- solved issues, including finding a proper balance between buffering the financial system and dampening the cycle and between institution-specific and systemwide triggers and targets, between price-based and quantity- based tools, and between rules and discretion. It is worth pointing out, however, that on many of these issues, LAC is on a par with other regions. In fact, many LAC countries have already introduced countercyclical provisioning or capital requirements. Several countries in the region have used reserve requirements to help manage capital inflows and the credit cycle. Furthermore, many LAC countries have recently introduced regulations to limit the risks associated with foreign currency exposures, which are also systemic in nature and similar in spirit to the systemic regulations currently being debated to manage credit cycles. The authors also note that reforms in monetary management, as well as macroprudential management, may be called for. In view of recent evidence showing that low interest rates in the developed world promote the search for yield among investors and encourage banks to push the risk frontier, timely monetary tightening may also contribute to maintaining prudent lending standards in the upswing phase of the cycle. However, it is also worth noting that more active macroprudential management can help relieve some of the pressures from monetary policy, thereby help- ing reconcile inflation and exchange rate targets in economies with open capital accounts—an issue dear to the hearts of many central bankers in LAC. Countercyclical deployment of fiscal policy would, of course, also help achieve financial stability. Chapter 10, by Mariano Cortés, Miquel Dijkman, and Eva Gutierrez, shifts the focus from connecting the system through time to connecting the parts to the whole, that is, from macroprudential management to microsystemic regulation. The chapter starts by reviewing the key issues associated with the setting of the outer perimeter of regulation. Although regulatory perimeters are already widely extended in LAC, this issue remains relevant. For starters, boundary concerns—the incentives to migrate intermediation to the less regulated domains—continue to exist. Important in this context is the issue of resource allocation. Spreading resources too thinly may compromise the effectiveness of supervision, providing an unwarranted sense of comfort and possibly breeding moral hazard. To save on expenses, some countries have resorted to auxil- iary models of delegated supervision for smaller credit cooperatives. Another form of delegation could involve allowing those entities that fund themselves only from regulated intermediaries to be exempt from prudential regulation. Still another approach is to grant the supervisor statutory authority to readily extend the perimeter as circumstances war- rant (as in the Dodd-Frank Act). However, exercising such discretion- ary powers is particularly challenging, given the region’s administrative 16 emerging issues in financial development law framework. Another topic of discussion in the policy debate on the most appropriate boundary for regulatory supervision comes from the fact that systemic risk that builds up outside the financial system may end up contaminating the system through its impact on the markets in which both financial and nonfinancial firms participate or through com- mon ownership. The authors also argue that regulatory arbitrage can take place within the perimeter of regulation when different silos are regulated differently. Indeed, licenses granted to intermediaries in the LAC region tend to have a narrow scope of permissible activities, typically separating commer- cial from investment banking and insurance from banking more broadly. The current silo approach is hindered, moreover, by the weaknesses in consolidated regulation. The authors argue that one possible route for dealing with this issue is to pursue a fully uniform, risk-based approach in which all entities are similarly regulated, ultimately leading to universal licenses. There are, nonetheless, potential drawbacks to such a proposal: it is technically challenging; it could potentially lead to a loss of diversity, thus making the system more fragile; and it could foster the emergence of systemically important financial entities (SIFIs) that are deemed too big to fail. Indeed, the region has many SIFIs, and there appears to be some consensus on the need to regulate them differentially. Implementing such a differential treatment will certainly be challenging in view of the data and analytical requirements. More important, the global financial crisis has highlighted the need to resolve unviable financial institutions, par- ticularly SIFIs, in a nondestabilizing fashion. While the crises of LAC’s past have led to the introduction of sophisticated frameworks for resolv- ing bank failures in many countries in the region, these frameworks remain largely untested. In fact, crisis simulations conducted in several countries have revealed serious shortcomings in both tools and pro- cesses. Moreover, the development of systems for resolving the failure of financial conglomerates (including those that operate across borders) is still in its infancy. Chapter 11, by Steven A. Seelig and Katia D’Hulster, discusses systemic supervision, an issue that has probably not received sufficient attention thus far in the public debate but that is nonetheless central to effective systemic oversight. The authors start by looking at the interface between regulation and supervision. The inherent tensions and complementarities between regulation and supervision are an essential part of the “rules ver- sus discretion” debate. Hence, one of the main challenges of policy makers is to build sufficient discretion into the supervisory process (in a context of appropriate accountability) without relaxing regulations so much that prudential oversight loses its “teeth.” The latter is an even greater chal- lenge in civil law countries, such as those in LAC, where supervisors can usually take only those actions specified in laws and regulations. overview 17 Another key issue is how best to combine a top-down perspective with a bottom-up analysis. To be sure, one of the weaknesses in the financial stability analyses published by central banks has often been the absence of the supervisors’ perspective on what is happening at individual institu- tions. The chapter argues that the necessary coordination—down to the technical staff level—for this process to succeed is certainly not trivial, par- ticularly in countries where bottom-up supervision is conducted outside the central bank. A closely related (but conceptually distinct) issue is the relative emphasis on off-site versus on-site supervision. While one might think that—because it involves the forest more than the trees—systemic supervision is more about off-site, this is unlikely to be the case. Instead, systemic supervision calls for a review of on-site supervision, stressing its complementarities with off-site analysis. According to the authors, the global financial crisis has called for a review of the role of market-based financial indicators and the reliance on market discipline. A key question arising from the crisis is not whether market discipline is good or bad, but instead how supervisors can make better use of market signals. For instance, when weak market signals con- stitute a severe limitation, policy makers may be significantly constrained in developing instruments (such as subordinated debt) that help price the risk and thereby facilitate risk discovery. Unless supported in some fashion by the state (and perhaps even subsidized), these instruments may simply be too expensive to see the light of day. The authors thus argue that an important research agenda for the region is to help design, introduce, and support the development of these instruments. Overall, an important requirement for proper market discipline is analysis and information. Because much information is a public good, one can eas- ily argue that supervisory agencies should provide more of it, including information on (and better analysis of) the system as a whole, how it is wired and interconnected, and what the risks ahead are. When risks are detected, supervisors need not only to inform and guide but also to act. Finally, the authors conclude that successfully implementing systemic supervision will require building up skills, which involves a quantum leap, not a marginal improvement. It will also require suitable organizational arrangements. The need for better coordination between monetary and prudential management with a systemic perspective naturally suggests that central banks will have to play a leading role. As central banks assume this role, however, it seems important not to compromise their independence. In the end, putting in place appropriate decision-making and interagency coordinating arrangements seems to deserve top priority. If a systemic oversight or financial stability council is set up, ensuring its accountabil- ity is crucial. Last but not least, cooperation across agencies needs to be encouraged. In addition to coordinating at home, supervisors will also need to coordinate better across borders. In LAC, the importance of for- eign banks makes this an even greater priority. 18 emerging issues in financial development Policy Implications The chapters that follow yield many lessons and raise several issues for further research, many of them on the policy front. As the evidence pre- sented in various chapters shows, LAC has made substantial progress in financial system development. First, there was a general financial deepen- ing, with capital markets and institutional investors playing an increas- ingly important role and new markets and instruments springing up and making inroads. Consistent with this general deepening, the maturities of fixed-income instruments have lengthened considerably, yield curves have extended further into the long term, and there has been a broad-based, albeit certainly not yet complete, return to local currency (both in bank- ing and in bonds). At the same time, the patterns of financial globalization have become safer, with lower debt liabilities and higher reserve assets. There has also been substantial progress in financial inclusion, particularly in LAC7 countries, which, in fact, now appear to be at least not behind and sometimes even ahead of their peers in this respect. Yet significant gaps in LAC’s financial development remain. First, the commercial banking sector underperforms both in size and in efficiency. Second, while there has been a substantial increase in consumer credit, this seems to have occurred largely at the expense of other types of lend- ing, including the mortgage market, where LAC lags the most, but also firm financing. Third, the domestic equity market also underperforms in trading activity, if not in capitalization. Finally, the insurance industry lags in scope and size of assets. These gaps matter to the extent that they can constrain a country’s growth potential, as well as its access to finance more broadly. By limiting intertemporal consumption smoothing, the gaps may also reduce welfare. Moreover, there is substantial unevenness across the region. On the more positive side, important success stories—such as banking, corporate bonds, and insurance in Chile; equity and mutual funds in Brazil; or public debt in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico—provide worthy examples to study and follow. Nonetheless, LAC countries, including those just mentioned, still face substantial challenges in establishing deep markets for long-term finance. In spite of the strong development of (and high fees charged by) asset managers, they continue to concentrate their portfolios in the shorter-term and more liquid securities. Moreover, they trade little. While the annuities industry in some countries, such as Chile, is a potential success story of how to help channel demand toward the longer and the less liquid securities, there are difficulties at the interface between pensions and annuities that most countries (to a greater or lesser extent) need to address. A number of issues merit consideration in future research. A develop- mental policy agenda for the LAC region surely needs to aim at a better overview 19 understanding of the nature and implications of LAC’s gaps. Dealing with the banking gap should be the first order of business of this agenda. To what extent and in what ways are SMEs actually affected by a lack of credit? To what extent does the problem reside in the lack of bank- able projects? Is lack of competition part of the problem? If so, what can be done about it? While research explores these questions, the policy agenda needs to focus on promoting productivity-oriented credit (firms, infrastructure, low-income households), which might include state inter- ventions aimed at overcoming coordination failures, as well as interven- tions that offer well-targeted and well-priced credit guarantees to foster longer-term investments (including asset-backed securities or infrastruc- ture bonds). Most important, however, sustainability is the name of the game: a slower but more sustainable, less fiscally risky approach is prefer- able to a more ambitious program of financial sector expansion that may overreach and therefore end badly. On the equity gap, while a strengthening of the contractual environ- ment would certainly help, more research is clearly needed to assess its impacts and uncover possible solutions. In addition, the ramifications of the link between the lack of stock trading and the efficiency of stock price discovery need to be ascertained. Research is also needed to assess how the lower liquidity of the stocks of smaller firms affects their price. As for solutions, while the region’s atypically low turnover relative to the bench- mark cannot be explained by size, size seems to matter immensely when it comes to policies for the development of local stock markets. With the exception of Brazil, this is the major challenge for LAC. While regional integration of stock exchanges might help overcome the constraints of market size, it does not necessarily solve the constraints associated with the small size of stock issues. Furthermore, additional research is needed to ascertain whether regional integration of stock markets can achieve any special benefits that could not, perhaps, be more effectively achieved through global integration. There is also a need to identify the governance frameworks that are appropriate to the larger as well as to the smaller stock markets. While further improvements in market infrastructure are, of course, welcome, they will probably help only at the margin. It might be the case that more can be done through venture capital funds (that is, through relationship-based, nonliquid equity finance) than through tradi- tional market-based equity finance. If so, the emphasis should be put on ways to promote the growth of such funds. In the end, however, and in light of the dominance of institutional investors in the financial systems of the region, the restrictions set by regulators on the holding of stocks from smaller companies may considerably impair the feasibility of this approach. With respect to the goal of lengthening financial contracts, there might be room for strengthening regulations that encourage longer-term invest- ing. For life insurance companies, prudential regulation that encourages 20 emerging issues in financial development a matching of maturities may suffice. For pension funds, life-cycle funds or regulations that nudge defined-contribution funds into mimicking the investment behavior of defined-benefit funds could perhaps help lengthen their portfolios. In some cases, pension fund regulations may need to be revised to encourage investments in long instruments, such as infrastruc- ture bonds, possibly with some partial public guarantees. Clearly, how- ever, there is a line not to be crossed between internalizing the positive externalities of long-term finance and undermining pension funds’ fidu- ciary responsibility by obliging them to invest in the pet political projects of the day. In view of consumers’ and workers’ bounded rationality and behavioral biases, regulations that, by default, channel their savings into investment portfolios that are the most appropriate for them might also be desirable. However, the scope of state intervention again clearly needs to be limited. A proper balance must be found between protecting those consumers who are clearly not equipped to manage their portfolios and encouraging those who are to do so, thereby enhancing market discipline. In putting forward a financial development agenda, understanding the trade-offs between financial stability and financial development is key. While much has been written on stability issues since the global financial crisis, very little has been said on the links between stability and develop- ment. Indeed, despite such efforts as the establishment of the Financial Stability Board and the G-20, the international financial architecture is still exclusively focused on financial stability and is thus clearly unable to tackle the issues at the interface of financial development and financial sta- bility. Finding the right balance between these two dimensions—a global challenge—takes on special characteristics in LAC. The current hands-on, silo-based, broad regulatory perimeter, innovation-cautious oversight has served the region well. However, some realignment may be needed as financial systems continue to mature and the intensity of cross-border competition increases. The more room LAC opens for markets to play and innovations to be introduced, though, the more it will need to rely on a well-targeted ex ante internalization of systemic risks and an ex post capacity to provide liquidity and absorb risks. The current developmental gaps are likely to complicate finding the proper trade-off, not least because they might feed resistance to the regulatory tightening associated with Basel III. This trade-off is particularly important in promoting the nexus of finance and growth. It will involve the question of how to promote the “bright side” of financial development (more financing activity that spurs innovation and growth) without generating further problems with the “dark side” (the facets of financial activity that may engender “excessive” risks and may lead to crises). In LAC, with its large developmental gaps, one could take the view that the region is far from reaching a threshold where finance might be harmful (rather than beneficial) to growth, should one exist. Taking this view too strongly, however, would be unwise, given overview 21 the growing interconnectedness and globalization of LAC’s financial sys- tems. Moreover, one can also argue that potential perils down the road should guide current policies. It is worth emphasizing that in LAC (and in other regions as well), the causality between finance and growth appears to be a two-way street. LAC’s financial development gaps in part reflect the mediocre growth of the past. Therefore, much of the improvement of the regional underperformance in finance needs to take place outside finance, particularly in the growth, productivity, and competitiveness are- nas. The history of mediocre growth also implies a need to focus more on financial policies that can help promote growth, as the latter will in turn help resolve the region’s financial development gaps. On the dark side of finance, much will need to be done on the regu- latory front to deal adequately with the growing interconnectedness of financial markets and institutions. The starting point should be a revis- iting of the outer perimeter of regulation. As for the inner perimeter, improvements in the oversight of conglomerates will in turn need to be paired with a revisiting and, possibly, a major overhaul of the regulatory and resolution framework for financial conglomerates as well as for the SIFIs. The improvements (as yet largely untested) that have already been introduced across the region in the resolution of individual financial insti- tutions will now need to be extended to the resolution of financial groups and SIFIs, including those across borders. As for the SIFIs, while they will undoubtedly require tighter oversight, the region might want to avoid the U.S. example of formally anointing them as SIFIs. Instead, the intensity of supervision and tightness of regulation could be adjusted continuously (without sharp boundaries) according to criteria that apply to everyone. At the same time, the region will need to revamp its liquidity regulations to reflect a more systemic perspective, following to a large extent the emerg- ing guidelines provided by Basel III. Dealing with financial system dynamics will be another major compo- nent of LAC’s systemic oversight reforms. The region will need to set its macroprudential policy objectives across a menu of progressively more ambitious goals, ranging from simply correcting the distortions brought about by traditional prudential norms to the most ambitious objective of dampening “excessive” fluctuations and passing through the intermediate goal of simply making financial systems more resilient to fluctuations. The goals and design of macroprudential tools and policies will also need to reflect the fact that LAC’s financial cycles have been more frequent and pronounced and have ended badly more often than in other regions. The region’s recurrent exposure to a potentially lethal mix of capital inflows and commodity price booms further raises the premium on quickly estab- lishing or consolidating its macroprudential capacity. On the brighter side, however, the floating exchange rate regimes that now prevail in much of LAC should help cushion shocks and enhance the scope for more active monetary and macroprudential home policies, 22 emerging issues in financial development even when the latter are asynchronous with those of the rest of the world. Nonetheless, macroprudential policy should clearly not be regarded as a magic bullet. While it can assist monetary policy, particularly by smooth- ing out the potential conflicts between monetary and exchange rate poli- cies, it should be viewed as a complement to (not a substitute for) monetary (or fiscal) policies. Notes 1. Throughout this book, we focus mostly on Latin America. However, we also present some evidence on Caribbean countries. Overall, we use the term LAC to refer to the region in general. 2. LAC has in fact been an important player in the worldwide microfinance rev- olution, which decisively shifted microfinance from a grant-intensive activity of non- governmental organizations to a profitable, commercially viable banking business. 3. Financial sector reform agendas in LAC were often aided by Financial Sector Assessment Programs (FSAPs), undertaken jointly by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in several countries in the region since 1998, as well as by technical assistance (including in the context of loan operations) provided by these institutions. Comprehensive FSAP documentation, including country reports and reviews of the program, can be found at http://worldbank. org/fsap. A fairly detailed documentation of the capital markets–related reforms undertaken by LAC during the 1990s and early 2000s can be found in de la Torre, Gozzi, and Schmukler (2007a, b). Chapter 8 of this book documents the progress in LAC with respect to banking supervision. 4. Other overview studies of LAC’s financial sector include the following: the Inter-American Development Bank’s 2005 report Unlocking Credit: The Quest for Deep and Stable Bank Lending, which focuses on the banking sec- tor; the 2006 book by de la Torre and Schmukler, Emerging Capital Markets and Globalization: The Latin American Experience, which focuses on securities markets; the 2006 book by Stallings and Studart, Finance for Development: Latin America in Comparative Perspective; the Inter-American Development Bank’s 2007 report Living with Debt: How to Limit the Risks of Sovereign Finance; and the Corporación Andina de Fomento’s 2011 report Servicios Financieros para el Desarrollo: Promoviendo el Acceso en América Latina, which focuses on access to finance. Relevant overview studies by the World Bank on financial sector develop- ment issues with a global (rather than a LAC) focus include the following: the 2001 report Finance for Growth: Policy Choices in a Volatile World; the 2007 report Finance for All? Policies and Pitfalls in Expanding Access; and the 2013 Global Financial Development Report, Rethinking the Role of the State. 5. The Flagship Report, a set of presentations with graphs and tables for specific countries, and a press release are available at the LCR Chief Economist Office’s website (www.worldbank.org/laceconomist) and a dedicated website (www.worldbank.org/lacfinancereport). 6. The uncertainty resulting from macroeconomic volatility—particularly high and unpredictable inflation—was deleterious to financial development, most of all for financing at the longer maturities. It corroded the role of money as a store of value, leading to a gradual buildup of currency and duration mismatches. The inflexible exchange rate regimes that were adopted in part to control inflation expectations instead exacerbated currency mismatches and made countries vulner- able to self-fulfilling currency attacks. This compounded the region’s vulnerability overview 23 to currency crashes associated with unsustainable fiscal positions. Widespread mismatches, for their part, increased the fragility of financial systems to currency upheavals, interest rate volatility, and bank runs. In addition to their major—and well-known—adverse effects on growth and employment, financial crises have proven highly regressive for income and wealth distribution (see, for example, Halac and Schmukler 2004). 7. For a characterization of the financial liberalization sequencing debate, along with the relevant references, see chapter 4 of de la Torre and Schmukler (2006). 8. See, for instance, Robinson (2001), Yunus (2003), Armendáriz de Aghion and Morduch (2005), and Sengupta and Aubuchon (2008). 9. See, for example, Porzecanski (2009), IMF (2010), de la Torre et al. (2010), and Didier, Hevia, and Schmukler (2012). 10. According to IADB (2005), in recent history, LAC has been the geographi- cal region of the world with the highest incidence of banking crises. In particular, 27 percent of LAC countries (35 percent excluding the Caribbean) experienced recurrent banking crises during the 1974–2003 period, compared to 13 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa, 11 percent in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and 8 percent in East Asia and the Pacific. 11. See, for example, Beck and Levine (2004). References Armendáriz de Aghion, B., and J. Morduch. 2005. The Economics of Microfinance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Beck, T., and R. Levine. 2004. “Stock Markets, Banks, and Growth: Panel Evidence.” Journal of Banking and Finance 28 (3): 423–42. Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF). 2011. Servicios Financieros para el Desarrollo: Promoviendo el Acceso en América Latina. Reporte de Economía y Desarrollo. Corporación Andina de Fomento. Bogotá, Colombia: CAF. de la Torre, A., C. Calderón, T. Didier, T. Kouame, M. I. Reyes, and S. L. Schmukler. 2010. The New Face of Latin America and the Caribbean: Globalized, Resilient, Dynamic. World Bank Annual Meetings Report. Washington, DC: World Bank. de la Torre, A., J. C. Gozzi, and S. Schmukler. 2007a. “Financial Development in Latin America: Big Emerging Issues, Limited Policy Answers.” World Bank Research Observer 22 (1): 67–102. ———. 2007b. “Stock Market Development under Globalization: Whither the Gains from Reforms?” Journal of Banking and Finance 3 (16): 1731–54. de la Torre, A., and S. Schmukler. 2006. Emerging Capital Markets and Globalization: The Latin American Experience. Washington, DC: World Bank; Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. Didier, T., C. Hevia, and S. Schmukler. 2012. “How Resilient and Countercyclical Were Emerging Economies during the Global Financial Crisis?” Journal of International Money and Finance 31 (8): 2052–77. Halac, M., and S. Schmukler. 2004. “Distributional Effects of Crises: The Financial Channel.” Economia 5 (1): 1–67. International Monetary Fund (IMF). 2010. Meeting New Challenges to Stability and Building a Safer System. Global Financial Stability Report. Washington, DC: IMF. 24 emerging issues in financial development Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). 2005. Unlocking Credit: The Quest for Deep and Stable Bank Lending. Economic and Social Progress Report. Washington, DC: IADB. ———. 2007. Living with Debt: How to Limit the Risks of Sovereign Finance. Economic and Social Progress Report. Washington, DC: IADB. Porzecanski, A. 2009. “Latin America: The Missing Financial Crisis.” ECLAC Washington Office Studies and Perspectives Series 6, UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Washington, DC. Robinson, M. 2001. The Micro Finance Revolution: Sustainable Finance for the Poor. Washington, DC: World Bank; Baltimore: Open Society Institute. Sengupta, R., and C. Aubuchon. 2008. “The Micro Finance Revolution: An Overview.” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review (January/February). http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/review/article/6256. Stallings, B., and R. Studart. 2006. Finance for Development: Latin America in Comparative Perspective. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution; UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Santiago, Chile. World Bank. 2001. Finance for Growth: Policy Choices in a Volatile World. World Bank Policy Research Report. Washington, DC: World Bank; Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ———. 2007. Finance for All? Policies and Pitfalls in Expanding Access. World Bank Policy Research Report. Washington, DC: World Bank. ———. 2013. Global Financial Development Report: Rethinking the Role of the State. Washington, DC: World Bank. Yunus, M. 2003. Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle against World Poverty. New York: Public Affairs. 1 Financial Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: Stylized Facts and the Road Ahead Tatiana Didier and Sergio L. Schmukler Abstract In this chapter, we document the major trends in financial development in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) since the early 1990s. We compare trends in LAC with those in Asia, Eastern Europe, and The authors work for the World Bank in, respectively, the Office of the Chief Economist for the Latin America and the Caribbean Region (tdidier@worldbank.org) and the Macroeconomics and Growth Team of the Development Research Group (sschmukler@worldbank.org). The chapter benefited from very helpful comments by Augusto de la Torre, Cesar Calderon, Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Alain Ize, Eduardo Levy Yeyati, Guillermo Perry, Claudio Raddatz, Rodrigo Valdes, and participants at pre- sentations held at the Bank of Korea International Conference 2011 (Seoul), the 12th Global Development Network Annual Meeting (Bogotá), the NIPFP-DEA Workshop (Delhi), ADBI (Tokyo), the World Bank (Washington, DC), IMF (Washington, DC), American University (Washington, DC), Central Bank of Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), Casa das Garças (Rio de Janeiro), Foro Internacional de Economía (Lima), ITAM (Mexico, DF), Central Bank of Uruguay (Montevideo), Central Bank of Paraguay (Asuncion), Paraguay Ministry of Finance (Asuncion), and University of Chile (San- tiago de Chile). The authors are grateful to Francisco Ceballos, Luciano Cohan, Juan Cuattromo, Gustavo Meza, Paula Pedro, Virginia Poggio, Andres Schneider, Patricio Valenzuela, Luis Fernando Vieira, and Gabriel Zelpo for outstanding research assis- tance at various stages of this project. For help in gathering unique data, the authors wish to thank Mario Bergara (Central Bank of Uruguay), Samuel Fox (Fitch Ratings), Fabio Malacrida (Central Bank of Uruguay), and Carlos Serrano (National Banking Commission, Mexico), among many others. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the World Bank. 25 26 emerging issues in financial development advanced countries, and we also compare countries within LAC. We show that financial systems in the LAC region, as in many other emerg- ing economies, have become more diversified and more complex. In particular, domestic financial systems have become less bank based, with bond and stock markets playing a larger role; institutional inves- tors have gained some space in channeling domestic savings, thus increasing the availability of funds for investment in capital markets; and several LAC economies have started to reduce currency and matu- rity mismatches. Nonetheless, a few large companies continue to capture most of the domestic savings. And because these trends have unfolded more slowly than promarket reformers had envisioned, broad, market-based financial systems with dispersed ownership have yet to materialize fully in LAC. As a result, convergence is still largely failing to happen, and the region’s financial systems remain not only less devel- oped than those of the advanced economies but also less developed than those of several other emerging economies, most notably those in Asia. Introduction Since the early 1990s, many economies in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have undertaken significant efforts to expand the scope and depth of their financial systems. The literature suggests several reasons for doing so. Financial development has long been linked to faster growth and greater welfare (see, for example, Levine 1997, 2005; Luintel and Kahn 1999; Levine and Zervos 1996; King and Levine 1993a, 1993b). Increased access to financing has beneficial effects, especially for histori- cally underserved segments, such as small and medium enterprises (SMEs) (see, for example, de la Torre, Martínez Pería, and Schmukler 2010; Beck, Demirgüç-Kunt, and Martínez Pería 2011; Beck and Demirgüç-Kunt 2006). A deep financial system has usually been perceived as more resilient to shocks and less prone to volatility and financial crises (see, for example, Easterly, Islam, and Stiglitz 2000; Aghion, Banerjee, and Piketty 1999; Acemoglu and Zilibotti 1997). These policy efforts have involved, among other things, improving access to banks (for savings, credit, and financial transactions in general) and developing capital markets as an alternative and competitor to the bank model, which is usually viewed as more costly. The policy approach of countries in the LAC region to financial devel- opment has basically followed a model of dispersed ownership, or what can be called “the U.S. model.” In this model, household savings are chan- neled directly into the capital markets, either through the retail market or, more generally, through financial intermediaries, such as pension funds, mutual funds, and insurance companies, that manage their savings. At the financial development in latin america 27 same time, firms can go directly to these markets to raise capital, which allows them to undertake riskier, longer-term investments than they would if they could raise funds only from banks. To entice households to put their savings in capital markets, firms protect shareholder rights, and market discipline helps punish firms (and financial intermediaries) that deviate from what is optimal for shareholders. In this model, risk is dispersed, idiosyncratic, and diversified. Banks play a less central role, competing with capital markets and financing projects that require more relation- ship lending. The role of the state in this model is to provide an enabling environment by safeguarding the investors and ensuring the stability of the financial system through regulation and supervision. The model entails a fundamental faith in free markets and competition. Efforts at financial development have not been unique to LAC in this period, of course, as many emerging countries have also implemented sig- nificant promarket reforms. Initially, there were large-scale privatizations of state-owned companies (see, for example, de la Torre and Schmukler 2008; de la Torre, Gozzi, and Schmukler 2007a; Perotti and van Oijen 2001). Widespread pension system reforms, among others, introduced and estab- lished institutional investors, generating a significant supply of funds for the financial system. Financial markets were liberalized, and foreign banks were allowed to operate in domestic markets with the intention of channeling foreign savings into the domestic economy. Following the numerous finan- cial crises of the 1990s and early 2000s, prudent macroeconomic and finan- cial policies to foster growth, stability, and resilience were implemented. The goal was to adopt well-regarded international standards and to reduce mismatches, such as currency and maturity mismatches, while at the same time withdrawing the state from the markets and avoiding crowding out. LAC’s record on achieving reforms is mixed—the region has been at the forefront of implementing many reforms, although it has been lagging in others. For example, LAC has been a pioneer in pension fund reforms, switching from a defined-benefit, pay-as-you-go system to a defined- contribution one, where workers save by investing in financial instruments (see, for example, Kritzer, Kay, and Sinha 2011; Dayoub and Lasagabaster 2007). Countries in the region have also been leaders among emerging economies in opening up their financial markets to cross-border flows and to the entry of foreign financial institutions (see, for example, Cull and Martínez Pería 2010; Kaminsky and Schmukler 2008). Several LAC countries have tried to stabilize inflation by following floating exchange rate regimes and adopting inflation-targeting policies (see, for example, Schmidt-Hebbel and Corbo 2002; Mishkin 2000). Finally, many coun- tries have actively fostered the development of long-term bond markets and a benchmark yield curve for the private sector by issuing debt in their domestic currencies. In contrast, a number of countries in the region have a long road ahead on regulatory issues. Many have still not fully met the minimum Basel I international standards on capital requirements, and 28 emerging issues in financial development the implementation of Basel II has thus far been limited in the region. While the LAC7 countries—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay—have recently taken some preliminary though important steps toward compliance with Basel III reforms, the rest of the region is markedly silent on its implementation (see chapter 8 in this volume). The two decades of financial sector and macroeconomic reforms and, more recently, the global financial crisis provide us with a uniquely rich tapestry of themes and issues through which to review (and ponder) Latin America’s financial development and its potential vulnerabilities, both present and future. The time is thus ripe for an in-depth evaluation of the returns on those efforts by taking stock of how these financial systems have developed and where they stand. The conclusions in de la Torre and Schmukler (2008) and in other papers were based on data up to the early 2000s and suggested that outcomes did not match expectations and reform efforts. At that time, we were somewhat pessimistic about the prospects for financial sector improvement, given the difficulty of overcoming high systemic risk and volatility, the slow progress of financial development, and the large mis- matches in currencies and maturities, all of which were the result of inher- ent deficiencies in emerging economies (see de la Torre and Schmukler 2004, 2008; de la Torre, Gozzi, and Schmukler 2007b). Other econo- mists shared our pessimism, focusing on the metaphor of “original sin” in emerging economies—that is, the inability to issue long-term debt in their own currencies—as well as on outright dollarization and “sudden stops” that would subject the economies to frequent shutdowns of foreign financ- ing (see, for example, Hausmann and Panizza 2003; Calvo and Reinhart 2000; Eichengreen and Hausmann 1999; Hausmann et al. 1999). More recently, however, new data from the mid- to late-2000s and several anecdotal accounts suggest some reasons for optimism. Emerging econo- mies have improved their macroeconomic performance, lowered inflation, and reduced fiscal deficits (Gourinchas and Obstfeld 2011). These policy achievements, together with high liquidity in international markets, have allowed emerging economies to issue long-term bonds in domestic markets, as foreign investors have expected further appreciations of local currency and entered local markets in search of higher yields. In addition, these economies weathered the storms of the recent global financial crisis rela- tively well, indicating the strength and resilience of their financial systems (see, for example, Didier, Hevia, and Schmukler 2011; Eichengreen 2009). Even with these reasons for optimism, the path ahead will certainly be challenging, especially for policy makers. In particular, the old model of con- vergence to international standards is being questioned precisely because those standards are being revised in the wake of the 2008–09 global finan- cial crisis. One example is the housing finance model fostered by public institutions like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in the United States, which other countries, such as Mexico, have also followed. Another example is financial development in latin america 29 the definition of the limits of regulation when banks and shadow banks are interconnected and when banks pose too high a systemic risk to be allowed to fail. This situation—wherein assets are excluded from banks’ balance sheets through securitization and special-purpose vehicles—evolved in sev- eral emerging economies as capital markets were developing and other financial intermediaries arose. A third example is the need to provide better services to savers and investors, while monitoring the degree of risk, given the prevalence of global shocks. A fourth example is the increasing role of public banks as a way to foster access to finance in good times and bad. The main goal of this chapter is to document some basic trends in the development of financial systems in LAC and in emerging economies more broadly. The primary value of this exercise is to put in perspective the absolute and relative size and the evolution of different components of the financial system using traditional and new indicators. We analyze both the borrow- ers’ (firms, government, and households) and the savers’ (households) side but focus on the perspective of the companies that are trying to raise capital and households that are trying to channel their savings. We also investi- gate how the nature of financial activity (currency, maturity, and scope of credit) has developed and to what degree changes in the size of markets have implied greater availability of financing for corporations (proxied by the concentration of capital market activity by the top firms). Our objective is to present a bird’s-eye view of the financial system, although we provide many details for the interested readers. Since it is very difficult to evaluate the extent of financial development, given the lack of clear benchmarks, we provide comparisons over time and across regions relative to gross domestic product (GDP) and relative to different measures of market size. Chapter 3 of this book (by de la Torre, Feyen, and Ize) presents an analysis that takes into account other factors that can influence financial development. To our knowledge, no other publication has conducted this type of analysis. We systematically analyze the evolution of the financial development of the LAC region during the 1990s and the 2000s. While we provide some evidence on the banking sector, most of the new evidence focuses on capital markets, at which many of the recent reforms were aimed and where most of the expectations were laid. We also document the evolu- tion of the main financial intermediaries aside from banks: pension funds, mutual funds, and insurance companies. We focus on seven of the larg- est countries in LAC, the so-called LAC7; as noted, this group includes Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. In addi- tion, in cases where patterns differ from the broad trends documented, we present evidence for specific countries within LAC7.1 We also compare the patterns observed in the LAC7 countries with those in other devel- oped and emerging regions. Among developed countries, we consider the G-7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States) as well as other advanced economies that are typically regarded as being somewhat more similar to emerging 30 emerging issues in financial development markets (Australia, Finland, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, and Sweden). As comparable emerging economies, we focus on two main regions: Asia (Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand; and separately, because of their distinct natures, China and India) and Eastern Europe (Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, the Russian Federation, and Turkey). The main findings of the chapter provide a mixed, nuanced picture of the main trends in financial development and can be summarized as follows. The financial systems of emerging economies, including those in Latin America, have effectively developed over the past two decades, becoming in many respects and by several standard measures deeper and more complex. In particular, there has been a transition from a mostly bank-based model to one that is more complete and interconnected. Nonbank markets—namely, bonds and equities—have increased in abso- lute and relative sizes. New markets are also forming, albeit somewhat timidly. Nonbank institutional investors now play a much more central role, channeling a large part of the savings, and the number and sophisti- cation of participants are increasing (even without taking into account the additional increasing participation of cross-border investors). The nature of financing is also changing to some extent, in general for the better, but at a slow pace. For instance, there is a longer maturity of bonds from both the private and the public sectors in domestic markets. The extent of the dol- larization of loans and bonds has also declined. However, not all regions have moved in the same direction. For example, Eastern Europe increased its foreign currency debt before the global financial crisis, which was linked to the higher transmission of the crisis to the countries in that region. In the case of Latin America, despite these new developments, finan- cial systems still remain underdeveloped in comparison to other regions. Bank credit has stagnated. Consumer credit has increased, apparently at the expense of firm financing. Bond markets have expanded but not as fast as those in the rest of the world. Private bond markets have increased in size but remain relatively small. Equity markets remain small, illiquid, and highly concentrated in large firms. While institutional investors are sophis- ticated and large, most of the savings are still channeled to government bonds and deposits, and as a result, large amounts of private savings are not being channeled directly to firms. In other words, we do not observe a convergence of the region’s indicators of financial development with those of more developed regions. In fact, developed countries have expanded their degree of financial development much more than emerging economies. Nevertheless, there is a large heterogeneity within the region. LAC7 coun- tries are still substantially more developed than the rest of the region. Within LAC7, Brazil and Chile show some progress in particular areas (equity and bond markets, respectively), which, though incomplete, look encouraging. The rest of the chapter is organized as follows. The next section docu- ments and gives a broad overview of where LAC and emerging economies financial development in latin america 31 stand on commonly used and simple measures of financial sector develop- ment. The chapter then analyzes whether and how the nature of financing has changed over time and describes recent developments in alternative markets and products. The following section examines the main players in the financial system. The final section discusses the challenges ahead for financial sector development. Financial Sector Development We start by providing some basic stylized facts showing where LAC countries stand on commonly used broad indicators of financial sector development, comparing them with other emerging and developed countries over the past two decades. More specifically, we focus on the depth of the financial sector, analyzing the size of bond and equity markets and that of the banking sector. Overall, we observe that financial systems in LAC countries have developed significantly over the past two decades, typically transitioning from an “old” mostly bank-based model to a “new” more complex and interconnected model in which nonbank institutions play a more central role. Despite these improvements, financial systems in LAC remain underdeveloped compared to other developed and emerging regions. Regarding the banking system, one perhaps surprising fact is that LAC7 lags behind developed and developing countries not only in relative size (as measured by total banking claims over GDP) but also in growth. The banking sector in developed countries is deeper to start with and has typi- cally expanded faster than the banking sectors in many emerging economies over the past three decades. In the G-7 economies, for example, bank size increased more than 20 percent, growing from 96 percent to 115 percent of GDP, on average, between 1980–89 and 2000–09. In stark contrast, the banking system in LAC7 countries saw very little or no expansion in total assets as a percentage of GDP during the same period, even though it started from much lower bases (figure 1.1a). At the same time, also starting with more shallow banking sectors than the developed world, Asia and Eastern Europe had strong growth, with total bank assets having expanded as much as 47 percent in the former and 25 percent in the latter over the same period. Within the LAC region, the Caribbean countries and Central and South America show trends similar to LAC7. Offshore centers in LAC, such as the Bahamas, Barbados, and Panama, are exceptions, showing an impressive, almost twofold growth between the decades of the 1980s and the 2000s. The patterns of financial development are strikingly different for bond markets across developed and developing countries over the past two decades. Bond markets have grown significantly in developing economies—by almost 80 percent in LAC7 countries (figure 1.1b)—but far less in developed countries. For example, bond market capitalization in Asia and Eastern Europe grew, respectively, 57 percent and 66 percent, on average, in the 32 emerging issues in financial development Figure 1.1 Market Size of Banks, Bonds, and Equities in Selected Regions and Economies, 1980–2009 a. Total assets of banks as % of GDP 140 120 100 % of GDP 80 60 40 20 0 a a ic (3 n ( d C ers ) ) a th ) Eu E a ) (2 (3 (6 er (6) di pe er ie nce (5 n ic u ) LA 5) ) ) n hi LA nt ro ast er So (4 an -7 (3 7 ia I m ) C om va C in ce G l A blic As be s on Ad re tra pu ib ho ar Ec r n Am e e e C ffs th C nR O O a ic in om D (+ Countries and regions 1980–89 1990–99 2000–09 b. Market capitalization of domestic bonds as % of GDP 120 100 80 % of GDP 60 40 20 0 na (6 n ) a ) ) s d (7 (5 (6 pe er di ie ce ) hi ) In (6 ro ast -7 ia 7 om an C C As G Eu E on dv LA Ec r A e th O Countries and regions 1990–99 2000–09 (continued next page) financial development in latin america 33 Figure 1.1 (continued) c. Market capitalization of domestic equities as % of GDP 100 90 80 70 % of GDP 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 ) na (7 n ) ia (7 d ) ep A 2) )( a C ore a th (5 (7 (7 pe er ie ce lic ric nd ic u ( hi ) ) 2) ) ) er So ro st LA sh ia -7 7 n (3 (4 n ub me C I C ea om va a As G in Off s Eu E LA in C ibb on Ad R ral ar Ec er Am an nt C th ic e s O er nt ce om D (+ Countries and regions 1990–99 2000–09 Sources: World Development Indicators; Bloomberg; IMF International Financial Statistics; Bank for International Settlements. Note: The statistics for China in panel 1.1a for the 1980–89 period include only banking claims to the private sector. The market capitalization of domestic bonds reported in panel 1.1b comprises bond securities defined as those issued by residents in domestic currency and targeted at resident investors. Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. GDP = gross domestic product. 2000s relative to the 1990s, whereas other advanced countries experienced no growth, on average. Despite the fast growth, bond markets in LAC7 countries remain particularly small, at 32 percent of GDP, on average, during 2000–09, compared to about 56 percent for Asia and 112 percent for G-7 countries. Within LAC7, Peru and Colombia are at the bottom of the distribution, with 15 percent and 23 percent of GDP, respectively, whereas Brazil and Chile are at the top with 40 percent and 59 percent, respectively. The heterogeneity is even greater across the broad set of countries in LAC. Somewhat similar patterns are also observed in the development of equity markets—equity market capitalization has typically grown faster in developing countries than in developed ones during the past decade, although there is greater heterogeneity across countries. For example, equity market 34 emerging issues in financial development capitalization across LAC7 countries expanded 60 percent in the 2000s vis- à-vis the 1990s, whereas it increased only 3 percent across G-7 countries (figure 1.1c). However, increases in equity prices can explain this trend, at least in part; that is, after adjusting market capitalization for changes in equity prices, a much more modest expansion of equity markets is observed around the world. For instance, equity markets in Eastern European and LAC7 countries expanded just 3 percent per year on average between 2000 and 2009. Similarly, equity markets expanded about 1 percent and 3 percent, respectively, in the G-7 and other advanced countries over the same period. Despite its significant growth in nominal terms, equity market capitalization as a percentage of GDP remains relatively small in LAC7 countries. For instance, equity markets represented on average 42 percent of GDP in LAC7 countries, while they represented about 66 percent of GDP in Asian countries and more than 85 percent in developed countries during the 2000s. Within LAC, Central and South America considerably lag behind the LAC7, with 15 percent and 9 percent of market capitalization over GDP, respectively, during the 2000 decade. The Caribbean and offshore centers, however, have more developed equity markets, at 79 percent and 71 percent, respectively, for the same period. These differences in the relative size of equity market capitalization are even larger once we attempt to control for differences in the availability of shares for investors, that is, the free float. Dahlquist et al. (2003) provide evidence that most firms in countries with poor investor protection are controlled by large shareholders, so that only a fraction of the shares issued by firms in these countries can be freely traded and held by portfolio investors. In other words, closely held shares typically represent a larger fraction of total market capitalization in emerging countries than in advanced ones. Once the percentage of closely held shares is taken into account, equity market capitalization becomes significantly smaller in LAC7 countries, and in emerging countries more broadly, than in developed ones. Although LAC countries are closing the gap in financial sector development relative to advanced economies in many respects, they are still lagging behind, particularly in comparison with the developing countries in Asia. To shed light on the extent of underdevelopment of the LAC7, we compare the size of its financial systems in 2005–07 with those of Asia in 1989–91, when their per capita incomes were similar (figure 1.2). We also include a comparison with developed economies in 1989–91. These comparisons suggest that the financial systems in LAC7 might be 20 years or more behind those of more advanced economies. The depth of LAC7’s banking system in the late 2000s is significantly lower than that observed on average in Asia and in developed countries in the early 1990s. Brazil and Chile stand as notable exceptions, with banking sectors similar in size (as a percentage of GDP) to those of developed countries like Australia, Italy, and Norway. Similar patterns are observed in bond markets. In equity markets, the patterns are more encouraging, financial development in latin america 35 Figure 1.2 Depth of Financial Systems and Income per Capita in Selected Countries and Regions, 1989–2007 a. Banks 120 Germany Spain Israel 100 Malaysia France Thailand Finland New Zealand 80 Canada Brazil Italy Norway % of GDP Chile Australia Sweden 60 Korea, Rep. United States 40 Indonesia Colombia Uruguay Philippines Argentina 20 Peru Mexico 0 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 Income per capita (US$) b. Bonds 140 United States 120 Italy 100 Canada Sweden % of GDP 80 Malaysia France Japan Brazil 60 Germany Korea, Rep. Norway Finland 40 Spain United Kingdom Mexico Argentina Philippines Australia Chile New Zealand 20 Colombia Peru Thailand 0 Indonesia 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 Income per capita (US$) G-7 and Other Advanced LAC7 (2005–07) Asia (1989–91) Economies (1989–91) (continued next page) 36 emerging issues in financial development Figure 1.2 (continued) c. Equities 140 120 Chile Malaysia Japan 100 United Kingdom % of GDP 80 Brazil Peru United States 60 Korea, Rep. Australia Colombia Sweden 40 Argentina Canada Thailand New Zealand Mexico France Philippines Spain Germany Norway 20 Israel Italy Finland Indonesia Uruguay 0 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 Income per capita (current US$) G-7 and Other Advanced LAC7 (2005–07) Asia (1989–91) Economies (1989–91) Sources: International Financial Statistics; Bank for International Settlements; World Development Indicators. Note: GDP = gross domestic product. as stock markets in many LAC7 countries are comparable in size (relative to GDP) to those in developed and developing Asian countries during the early 1990s, although this might be driven only by valuation effects, as discussed above. The relative underdevelopment of LAC7 countries seems surprising, given the number of reforms introduced in the financial system and the improved macroeconomic stance in recent years, both of which were expected to yield closer convergence with the more mature financial systems of developed countries and emerging economies in Asia. On the bright side, there has been some convergence—a transition from a mostly bank-based model to a more complete and complex model has been a broad trend in the LAC region as well as in many other developing countries (figure 1.3). For example, bond and equity markets in LAC7 countries now account for 64 percent of their financial systems, on average, in contrast to 54 percent observed in the 1990s. Similarly, these markets have grown from 45 to 55 percent of the size of the financial system in Eastern European countries and from 18 to 45 percent of the financial financial development in latin america 37 Figure 1.3 Size of Different Financial Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1990–2009 a. Size of domestic financial systems 350 300 89 250 67 % of GDP 200 66 85 66 112 93 50 150 73 35 55 62 56 55 100 35 31 42 125 30 33 26 28 115 32 50 82 82 95 111 20 80 102 47 58 43 36 36 37 0 (5 1990–99 2000–09 na 1990–99 2000–09 pe er 1990–99 2000–09 (6 1990–99 2000–09 di 1990–99 2000–09 (7 1990–99 2000–09 ie e 1990–99 2000–09 ) (7 n ) a ) (7 d hi c ) ) In ro ast ia -7 7 n C C om va As G s Eu E LA on Ad Ec er th O Countries and regions b. Composition of domestic financial systems 100 11 % of total domestic market 90 20 25 27 32 7 29 29 28 32 35 36 35 80 38 40 70 25 15 60 26 34 22 30 19 27 35 24 23 50 22 28 40 82 30 55 55 43 45 46 43 20 40 41 36 42 38 36 42 10 0 (5 1990–09 2000–09 na 1990–09 2000–09 pe er 1990–09 ) 2000–09 (6 1990–09 2000–09 In 1990–09 2000–09 1990–09 2000–09 ie ce 1990–09 ) 2000–09 ) (7 n ) a ) (7 d (7 di hi ro ast ia -7 7 n C C om va As G s Eu E LA on Ad Ec er th O Countries and regions Banks Bonds Equities Source: IMF International Financial Statistics; the Bank for International Settlements; World Development Indicators. Note: Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. GDP = gross domestic product. 38 emerging issues in financial development system in China. In developed countries, these markets typically account for about 60 percent of the financial system. Changing Structure of Domestic Financial Systems The increased depth of financial systems in LAC7 countries has come along with changes in the nature of financing—though slowly—toward the better: for example, the private sector has seen an expansion in local currency bond financing, the extent of dollarization of loans and bonds has declined, and the maturity of public and private sector bonds has typically increased. However, plenty of room remains for future development of the scope and depth of markets: bank credit has stagnated in various countries; firm financing has declined in relative terms; and private bond markets as well as equity markets remain typically small, illiquid, and highly concentrated in large firms. We now review more systematically these qualitative developments in domestic financial systems in emerging markets in light of trends in developed and other developing countries. Banking Systems While the composition of bank credit between the public and the private sector has not changed substantially over the past two decades in LAC7 countries, significant changes have taken place in the rest of the world. The large expansion of banking systems in developed countries has been concentrated mostly in an increase of their claims on the private sector, which rose from 50 percent of GDP in the 1980s to 98 percent in the 2000s in other advanced economies, accounting for 97 percent of total bank lending (figure 1.4a). In contrast, governments increased their bor- rowing not only in absolute but also in relative terms in many emerging markets, particularly in Eastern Europe and India, over the same period. Across LAC7 countries, the public sector represented a larger fraction of total bank lending during the 2000s, at about 26 percent of the total claims by the banking sector, whereas in G-7 countries and emerging Asian countries that number was around 12 percent and 10 percent, respectively. Although not greatly expanding, credit to the private sector in LAC7 countries has undergone significant qualitative changes in its composition, with credit shifting away from commercial lending and mortgage credit toward household financing (figure 1.4b). Qualitative changes in the com- position of private sector credit have also occurred in some other emerging markets, although mortgage lending has increased in the case of Eastern European countries and China. In contrast, the composition of bank credit has remained relatively stable in developed countries. In a context of somewhat stagnant private sector credit in a number of developing countries, these patterns may indicate an unbalanced expansion financial development in latin america 39 Figure 1.4 Nature of the Credit by Banks in Selected Countries and Regions, 1980–2009 a. Lending to the private and public sectors 100 5 10 4 90 10 15 17 12 7 5 12 % of total bank claims 12 8 10 14 11 19 11 19 80 70 60 50 98 113 40 90 115 34 77 96 26 32 33 68 44 76 72 31 50 23 34 24 38 30 20 10 0 1990–89 ) 1990–99 2000–09 1990–89 1990–99 2000–09 1990–89 1990–99 2000–09 1990–89 1990–99 2000–09 1990–89 1990–99 2000–09 1990–89 1990–99 2000–09 1990–89 1990–99 2000–09 na (3 n ) a ) (7 d (5 (7 (7 pe er di ie nce hi ) ) In ro ast ia -7 7 C C om va As G s Eu E LA on d A Ec er th O Countries and regions Private sector Public sector b. Composition of bank credit 100 7 7 10 9 8 8 16 15 16 14 90 22 19 17 24 26 80 19 % of total credit 37 40 41 41 70 33 40 41 14 14 60 46 37 52 51 58 50 40 66 30 53 62 60 52 52 53 51 51 51 20 40 39 32 31 25 10 0 2000–03 a 2004–07 2000–03 2004–07 2000–03 ) 2004–07 2000–03 ) 2004–07 2000–03 2004–07 2008–09 2008–09 2008–09 2008–09 2008–09 n d (5 (6 n pe er ie nce hi ) ) ro ast -7 7 (3 (6 C C om va G s Eu E LA on Ad Ec er th O Countries and regions Commercial Mortgage Personal Source: Local sources; International Financial Statistics. Note: On panel 1.4a, the percentages shown within the bars represent the size of both public and private claims as a percentage of GDP. For China, the data on claims on the public sector are not available for 1980–89. Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. 40 emerging issues in financial development of credit in a particular segment at the expense of the underdevelopment of others. For example, mortgages seem comparatively small across LAC countries. For LAC7 countries, these patterns in the development of bank- ing systems indicate that as countries have grown over the past two decades, bank credit to the private sector and to households in particular has also expanded, thus alleviating any potential financial constraints. These pat- terns also suggest that banks have expanded, in relative terms, in areas where it has been easy for them to grant credit at low risk, such as con- sumer credit through credit cards and collateralized loans, such as car loans and housing (not to mention the expansion of credit to the government). The increased use of capital markets by corporations, which has lessened demand for bank finance, would also be consistent with these patterns. Two other key qualitative changes in the nature of bank lending in LAC7 countries are appropriate to mention. One is a decline in the dollarization of loans—indeed, this has also occurred in most other emerging markets, although Eastern Europe is an exception. The other is a decline in the per- centage of foreign currency deposits in many emerging markets, although it remains particularly high in Eastern European and LAC7 countries (figure 1.5). These developments are likely a consequence of the emerging market crises of the 1990s, when currency mismatches rendered the private sector vulnerable to currency fluctuations and limited policy options. Banking systems in LAC7 countries are also becoming slightly more concentrated, with increasing shares of loans and deposits in the top five banks (figure 1.6). Surprisingly, the opposite trend is occurring in a number of other emerging markets. At the same time, foreign banks are increasing their presence in LAC7 and emerging markets more broadly; the LAC region and Eastern Europe have the highest penetrations, which are noticeably larger than those in Asia, China, and the other advanced economies (Claessens and van Horen 2013). The increase in concentration might raise concerns about banking competition in the LAC region. When fewer and larger banks (higher concentration) exist, banks might be more likely to engage in anticompetitive behavior (Berger 1995). The literature has linked bank competition with lower prices for banking products, increased access to finance, and greater bank efficiency. However, some studies have shown that, at times, concentration is not a reliable measure of competition and that the link between concentration and performance is not always negative (see, for example, Cetorelli 1999; Jackson 1992). Empirically, Anzoategui, Martínez Pería, and Rocha (2010) show that although banking systems in LAC countries exhibit a high degree of concentration, competition does not seem to have declined during the 1990s and 2000s. Bond Markets Despite their considerable expansion between 2000 and 2009, private (corporate and financial institutions) bond markets in LAC7 countries financial development in latin america 41 Figure 1.5 Dollarization of the Banking System in Selected Countries and Regions, 1991–2009 a. Foreign currency loans as % of total loans 80 70 % of total bank loans 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 na (3 n ) ) ) (2 d (3 (1 (1 pe er ie nce hi ) ) ro ast 7 ia -7 C C om va As G Eu E LA s on d A Ec er th O Countries and regions 2000–03 2004–07 2008–09 b. Foreign currency deposits as % of total deposits 40 35 % of total bank deposits 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 na (7 n ) ) ) (5 (3 (6 pe er hi ) ro ast ia -7 7 C C As G Eu E LA Countries and regions 1991–99 2000–08 Source: IMF, International Financial Statistics. Note: Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. 42 emerging issues in financial development Figure 1.6 Concentration of Banking Systems in Selected Countries and Regions, 2000–10 a. Loans by the top five banks as % of total loans 90 80 % of total bank loans 70 60 50 40 30 (6 n ) na a ) (3 d ) (5 (6 (4 pe er di ie nce ) hi ) ro ast In ia 7 -7 C C om va As G Eu E s LA on d A Ec er th O Countries and regions b. Deposits in the top five institutions as % of total deposits 90 80 % of total bank deposits 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 ) na (6 n ) a ) (3 d (4 (4 (6 pe er di ie nce hi ) ) In ro ast ia -7 7 C C om a As G s v Eu E LA on Ad Ec r e th O Countries and regions 2000–05 2006–10 Source: Bankscope. Note: Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. financial development in latin america 43 remained relatively small in comparison to those in more developed countries and to public bond markets. For example, private bond market capitalization typically represented around 40 percent of GDP in developed countries during the 2000s, whereas it stood at only 10 percent and 23 percent across LAC7 and Asian countries, respectively, over the same period (figure 1.7a). A positive development is that private bond markets across LAC7 countries have grown more as a percentage of GDP than government bonds, gaining space in relative terms and hinting at less crowding out by the public sector. Issuance data also suggest a significant size difference between private and public bond markets. While issuance of bonds by the private sector stood at around 1 percent of GDP per year in LAC7 countries, public sector bond issuance was around 5 percent of GDP on average for most of the 2000s. Figure 1.7 Bond Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1990–2009 a. Composition of bond markets 120 100 80 66 % of GDP 52 60 24 31 40 32 20 22 20 41 46 22 25 32 37 30 23 16 19 13 16 13 0 1990–99 2000–09 1990–99 2000–09 1990–99 2000–09 1990–99 2000–09 1990–99 2000–09 1990–99 2000–09 1990–99 2000–09 ) na (3 n ) a ) (5 d (5 (7 (6 pe er di ie nce hi ) ) In ro ast ia -7 7 C C om va As G s Eu E LA on Ad Ec er th O Countries and regions Private bonds Public bonds (continued next page) 44 emerging issues in financial development Figure 1.7 (continued) b. Bond market turnover 200 % of total domestic bond market capitalization 180 160 140 120 100 178 80 146 127 60 110 40 80 84 82 56 58 45 20 36 35 39 39 31 27 23 21 0 na (3 n a ) ) ) (5 d (2 (4 (4 pe er di ie nce hi ) In ro ast ) ia -7 7 C C As om va G Eu E LA s on Ad Ec r e th O Countries and regions 2000–03 2004 2008 Source: Bank for International Settlements; World Federation of Exchanges. Note: The market capitalization of domestic bonds reported in panel 1.7a comprises bond securities defined as those issued by residents in domestic currency and targeted at resident investors. Trading data reported in 1.7b include domestic private, domestic public, and foreign bonds traded in local stock exchanges. Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. GDP = gross domestic product. Bond market liquidity remains a concern in LAC7 countries. While turnover between 2008 and 2009 was around 60 percent in G-7 countries and reached 146 percent on average across other developed nations, it was merely 12 percent in LAC7 countries (figure 1.7b). In addition, the differences in turnover levels are significant relative to other emerging markets, some of which have experienced increased liquidity over the past 10 years. Trading volumes in secondary markets have been increasing in emerging Asian countries, for example, growing from 27 percent during financial development in latin america 45 2000–03 to 45 percent in 2008–09. These patterns suggest that primary bond markets have developed substantially more than secondary markets, and they are broadly consistent with the evidence that institutional investors hold bonds to maturity and do little trading (Raddatz and Schmukler 2008). Not only are private bond markets in LAC7 countries, and in emerging countries in general, small in size, but also they have a limited reach, remaining a restricted source of firm financing. Only a small number of firms access bond markets for new capital in comparison to developed countries. For example, during the 2000s, 19 firms on average issued bonds in LAC7 countries, compared to 21 and 27, respectively, for Asia and other advanced economies, and an astounding 432 firms in G-7 countries (figure 1.8a). Moreover, this indicator even declined from its 1990 reading. At the same time, LAC7 markets remain largely concentrated, with the top five issuers capturing 43 percent of new bond financing during Figure 1.8 Participation in Domestic Private Bond Markets in Selected Regions, 1991–2008 a. Average number of firms issuing bonds per year 500 450 400 350 Number of firms 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 ) ) ) (6 d (5 (7 (7 ie nce ) ia -7 7 C om va As G s LA on Ad Ec er th O Regions 1991–99 2000–08 (continued next page) 46 emerging issues in financial development Figure 1.8 (continued) b. Concentration (amount raised by the top five issuers as % of total amount raised) 100 90 80 % of total amount raised 70 60 50 40 30 60 57 47 43 20 35 10 20 23 23 0 ) ) ) (2 d (3 (6 (6 ie nce ) ia 7 7 G C om va As s LA on Ad Ec er th O Regions 1991–99 2000–08 Source: SDC Platinum. Note: The average number of firms issuing bonds per year in domestic markets is reported at the bottom of the bars in panel 1.8b. Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. the 2000s (figure 1.8b). In other words, a few firms (typically the larger ones) capture the bulk of the new bond financing. These patterns seem to be intrinsically related to the behavior of institutional investors in local markets, as discussed below. On a positive note, the profile of new bond issues across LAC7 countries has been improving considerably over the past two decades. As in developments in the composition of bank debt, and most likely as a consequence of a series of financial crises in the 1990s, LAC countries (in keeping with a broader trend across emerging countries) have on average made a conscious effort to try to reduce currency and maturity mismatches, minimizing concerns about credit risk and rollover difficulties. In particular, the maturity profile of both public and private sector bonds has been extended during the 2000s, and the degree of domestic currency debt financial development in latin america 47 has increased significantly. For example, relative to the 1990s, the private sector of LAC7 countries has increased the average maturity of domestic bonds from 6.1 years to 7.7 years. The increase in the average maturity of public debt is more striking, but it is not uniform across the LAC7 countries: between the 2000–03 and the 2008–09 periods, Brazil, Peru, and Uruguay showed significant increases in the maturity of public bonds, while Argentina’s and Chile’s public debt maturity remained somewhat unchanged or even declined (figure 1.9b). At the same time, bonds denominated in foreign currency in local markets have declined significantly in the private and public sectors. For instance, such bonds represented about 25 percent of total outstanding private Figure 1.9 Average Maturity of Bonds at Issuance in Domestic Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1991–2009 a. Private sector 12 10 8 Years 6 4 2 0 ) ) ) (6 d (5 (6 (6 ie nce ) ia -7 7 C As om va G LA s on Ad Ec er th O Regions 1991–99 2000–08 (continued next page) 48 emerging issues in financial development Figure 1.9 (continued) b. Public sector 25 20 15 Years 10 5 0 a le a o ru ay il in bi ic az hi Pe gu ex nt om C Br ge ru M ol U Ar C Countries, regions, and economies 2000–03 2004–07 2008–09 Sources: SDC Platinum; local central banks. Note: This figure shows the weighted average maturity of bond issuances per year in domestic markets, expressed in years. Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. sector bonds in the 2000s in LAC7 countries, down from 33 percent during the 1990s (figure 1.10). These overall trends probably reflect a conscious effort by governments to change the profile of their debt, given the serious rollover difficulties that mismatches generated during earlier periods of global and domestic shocks (Broner, Lorenzoni, and Schmukler 2013). Equity Markets Figure 1.1c showed a sizable increase in equity market capitalization in LAC7 countries between the 1990s and the 2000s. In contrast, financial development in latin america 49 figure 1.11a shows that the value of capital-raising activities in equity markets actually fell between those periods. For example, new capital raised through equity markets increased between 26 percent and 31 percent on average in developed countries, whereas it actually declined between the 1990s and the 2000s in developing countries—by about 70 percent in LAC7. As we suggested above, these results may not be inconsistent, as the expansion of market capitalization might be partly explained by the increasing equity valuations around the world during the 2000s. Furthermore, trading activity is consistent with this less than rosy picture of equity markets in LAC7 countries. Domestic markets are not only relatively illiquid in the region, but liquidity has also been declining over time, unfortunately confirming trends documented with data up Figure 1.10 Currency Composition of Bonds at Issuance in Domestic Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1991–2009 a. Foreign currency bonds as % of total issued bonds by the private sector 35 30 % of total issued bonds 25 20 15 10 5 0 ) ) ) (6 d (5 (6 (6 ie nce ) a -7 7 i C om va As G s LA on Ad Ec er th O Regions 1991–99 2000–08 (continued next page) 50 emerging issues in financial development Figure 1.10 (continued) b. Public sector-issued local currency, foreign currency, and inflation-linked bonds as % of total outstanding bonds 100 13 5 10 11 11 12 14 % of total outstanding bonds 90 23 80 70 70 60 75 85 50 100 97 99 100 100 93 90 89 89 88 87 86 40 72 30 20 30 10 25 15 0 2000–03 2004–07 2008–09 2000–03 2004–07 2008–09 2000–03 2004–07 2008–09 2000–03 2004–07 2008–09 2000–03 2004–07 2008–09 2000–03 2004–07 2008–09 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Uruguay LAC7 countries Local currency Inflation-linked Foreign currency Source: SDC Platinum; local central banks. Note: Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. to the early 2000s (de la Torre and Schmukler 2004). Turnover rates in LAC7 equity markets have declined from 25 percent in the 1990s to 17 percent in the 2000s. In contrast, in Asia, the G-7 countries, and other developed countries, turnover has increased significantly (figure 1.11b). Turnover ratios calculated with free-float market capitalization suggest similar patterns, with LAC7 countries lagging significantly behind other emerging and advanced countries. Despite some improvements in depth, the use of equity markets remains limited in LAC7 countries, with only a few firms capturing most of the (primary and secondary) market. One reason is that the number of listed firms is rather small compared to developed and other developing countries, and it has been declining over the past decade (figure 1.12a). In addition, the number of firms using equity finance on a regular basis is typically small in LAC7 countries; for instance, on average, only six firms issued equity in any given year during the 2000s in LAC7 compared to financial development in latin america 51 Figure 1.11 Activity in Domestic Equity Markets, 1990–2009 a. Value of new capital-raising issues 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 % of GDP 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 ) na ) ) a ) (7 d (5 (7 (7 (6 di ie nce hi ) In ia pe -7 7 C C om va As G ro s LA on d Eu A Ec er n er th st O Ea Countries and regions 1991–99 2000–08 b. Turnover ratio in domestic equity markets 200 180 160 140 Turnover ratio 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 ) a (7 n ) a ) (7 d (5 (7 (7 n pe er di ie nce hi ) ) In ro ast ia -7 7 C C om va As G s Eu E LA on Ad Ec er th O Countries and regions 1990–99 2000–09 Source: SDC Platinum; World Development Indicators. Note: Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. GDP = gross domestic product. 52 emerging issues in financial development Figure 1.12 Firm Activity in Domestic Equity Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1990–2009 a. Number of listed firms in domestic markets 6,000 5,000 Number of firms 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 na (7 n a ) ) ) (7 d (5 (7 (7 pe er di ie nce hi ) In ro ast ) ia -7 7 C C As om va G Eu E LA s on d A Ec er th O Countries and regions 1990–99 2000–09 b. Average number of firms raising equity capital per year 600 500 Number of firms 400 300 200 100 0 na (7 n a ) ) ) (7 d (5 (7 (6 hi pe er di ie nce ) C In ) ro ast ia -7 7 C As om va G Eu E LA s on Ad Ec re th O Countries and regions 1991–99 2000–08 Source: World Development Indicators; SDC Platinum. Note: Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. financial development in latin america 53 more than 290 in the G-7 countries, over 110 in other developed coun- tries, and over 90 firms in Asian countries (figure 1.12b). Third, the bulk of equity financing is concentrated in a few firms; in fact, the share raised by the top five issuers increased in LAC7 countries from 72 percent to 82 percent between the 1990s and the 2000s (figure 1.13a). Last, trading in equity markets is highly concentrated in a few firms as well, with the top five firms capturing almost 60 percent of the trading in LAC7 countries (figure 1.13b). Again, within the region equity markets are most liquid in LAC7 countries, while other countries have generally much smaller and more illiquid markets—with fewer than 50 listed firms on average and turnover rates below 5 percent. These patterns suggest that if there were any deepening of equity markets, it did not bring about a greater breadth Figure 1.13 Concentration in Domestic Equity Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1991–2009 a. Share of the amount raised by the top five Issuers as % of total amount raised 100 90 80 % of total amount raised 70 60 50 2 40 6 6 18 58 38 91 117 30 96 94 258 531 20 290 101 10 0 na (2 n ) a ) ) (7 d (7 (4 (5 pe er di ie nce hi ) ) In ro ast -7 7 ia C C om va G As Eu E LA s on d A Ec er th O Countries and regions 1991–99 2000–08 (continued next page) 54 emerging issues in financial development Figure 1.13 (continued) b. Share of the value traded by the top five companies as % of total value traded 90 80 70 % of total value traded 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 ) na a ) pe rn (5 (6 di hi ro ste ) In ia 7 (7 C C As Eu Ea LA Countries and regions 1990–99 2000–2009 Source: Emerging Markets Database; World Development Indicators; SDC Platinum. Note: Numbers at the base of the bars in 1.13a represent the average number of firms raising equity capital per year. Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. of access for firms. Equity markets seem to remain small, illiquid, and highly concentrated in a few firms across the region. Which Firms Access Capital Markets? While the description above shows that few firms access bond and equity markets, it provides little information about which firms do so. It is well known that larger firms have greater access to capital markets, due at least financial development in latin america 55 in part to cost and liquidity considerations. In practice, these considerations render the minimum issue size rather large for smaller firms (see Beck et al. 2006). Furthermore, firm-level data on publicly listed companies (generally the largest firms in an economy) across emerging markets show that not all public firms actually raise capital in bond and equity markets regularly, suggesting that an even more restricted set of firms uses financ- ing from capital markets. Typically, firms that raise capital through either bonds or equity are larger (in assets), are growing faster (as represented by sales growth), are more profitable (greater return on assets), and are more liquid (that is, they have higher cash-to-current-asset ratios) than publicly listed firms that do not issue bonds or equities over a given period. There are, however, some differences across emerging regions: firms rais- ing capital in some LAC7 countries (Brazil and Chile, for example) tend to be more leveraged than firms that do not use capital markets, while the opposite is true on average in a number of Asian countries, like China, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The fact that only a restricted set of firms uses capital markets can be partly explained by supply factors. For instance, the restricted investment practice of institutional investors is one possible explanation. As documented in a number of papers, institutional inves- tors tend to invest in larger and more liquid firms, thereby limiting the supply of funds to smaller and less liquid firms (see, for example, Didier 2011; Didier, Rigobon, and Schmukler 2010; Edison and Warnock 2004; Dahlquist and Robertsson 2001; Kang and Stulz 1997). Promising Spots in LAC? The Cases of Brazil and Chile While the patterns documented so far focus mostly on LAC7 countries, we have shown at times that the broad picture is even more dismal in other LAC countries, reflecting the region’s heterogeneity. However, the adoption of a more capital market–based approach is relatively more advanced in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. The cases of Brazil and Chile in particular are worth noting and show important progress in key areas that, though still incomplete, look encouraging, as documented below. Bond Markets in Chile Private bond markets in Chile grew from 13 percent of GDP during the 1990s to 21 percent in the 2000s (figure 1.14a). Moreover, the private sector now accounts for a greater share of total outstanding bonds than the public sector—51 percent of total outstanding bonds on average in the 2000s compared to 33 percent on average during the 1990s. Consistent with these trends, primary markets are also highly active in Chile, with new bond issues by the private sector of 3.4 percent of GDP on average on an annual basis between 2000 and 2008. In contrast, the second largest primary market for bond issues by the private sector among LAC7 countries is Brazil, with annual amounts issued of about 1.4 percent of GDP on average (figure 1.14b). 56 emerging issues in financial development Figure 1.14 Public and Private Bond Markets across LAC7 Countries, 1990–2009 a. Outstanding amount of public and private bonds 70 60 50 % of GDP 40 30 20 10 0 1990–99 2000–09 1990–99 2000–09 1990–99 2000–09 1990–99 2000–09 1990–99 2000–09 1990–99 2000–09 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru LAC7 countries Private bonds Public bonds b. Value of new issues in private bond markets 4.0 3.5 3.0 % of GDP 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru Uruguay LAC7 countries 1991–99 2000–08 Source: Bank for International Settlements; SDC Platinum. Note: The market capitalization of domestic bonds reported in 1.14a comprises bond securities defined as those issued by residents in domestic currency and targeted at resident investors. GDP = gross domestic product. financial development in latin america 57 The use of primary bond markets by firms in Chile is also growing. In the 1990s, on average, 8 firms issued bonds in local markets in a given year, and in the 2000s the average increased to 23, or almost 1.4 firms per million inhabitants (figure 1.15a). Although small compared to G-7 countries, which boast 6.5 firms per million inhabitants, this is a greater number of firms raising capital than seen in many other emerging economies. Moreover, state-owned enterprises correspond to only 3 percent of outstanding amounts of corporate bonds, according to LarrainVial (2011), one of the largest brokerage firms in Chile. Concentration in Chile is also less a concern than it is in other emerging countries, with statistics comparable to those of G-7 countries (figure 1.15b). Nevertheless, the minimum issue size is, in practice, still quite high, and firms that use bond markets have, on average, US$173 million in outstanding bonds, which suggests how restricted access is for smaller firms. The maturity structure of private bonds in Chile is surprisingly long for an emerging market—15.5 years at issuance, significantly longer than the observed average of 6.2 years in the other LAC7 countries and the 10 years Figure 1.15 Activity in Domestic Private Bond Markets in LAC7 Countries, 1990–2008 a. Total number of firms issuing bonds per year 80 70 60 Number of firms 50 40 30 20 10 0 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru LAC7 countries 1990–99 2000–08 (continued next page) 58 emerging issues in financial development Figure 1.15 (continued) b. Share of the amount raised by top five issuers as % of total amount raised 100 90 80 % of total amount raised 70 60 50 40 8 30 12 6 26 20 69 41 41 16 14 23 46 10 38 0 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru LAC7 countries c. Average maturity at issuance in years 18 16 14 12 10 Years 8 6 4 2 0 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru LAC7 countries 1991–99 2000–08 Source: SDC Platinum. Note: Numbers at the bottom of the bars represent the average number of issuers per year. financial development in latin america 59 typically seen in a number of developed countries (figure 1.15c).2 The long maturities in Chile are generally linked to indexed, high-grade bonds. In December 2005, 97.7 percent of issued bonds were inflation-linked bonds, and 1.5 percent were linked to the U.S. dollar. In December 2010, a similar composition was observed, when almost 94 percent of bonds were linked to inflation and 1.5 percent were linked to the exchange rate.3 Domestic bonds are also mostly rated at investment grade, with very few high-yield issues. Non-investment-grade bonds correspond to 0.2 percent of issues, and by the end of 2010 the percentage of bonds rated BBB or below was about 3 percent, which is significantly lower than those in developed countries: high-yield bonds have reached almost 40 percent of issues in Japan and around 10 percent in the United States (statistics from LarrainVial 2011). Although primary bond markets for the private sector seem highly developed, liquidity in secondary markets remains limited. According to LarrainVial (2011), trading of corporate bonds in Chile corresponds to about 20 percent of the total value traded in domestic bond markets, a disproportionate amount given its size relative to government bonds. Even though turnover ratios increased consistently in the 2000s, going from about 30 percent in 2002 to almost 60 percent in 2010, they stood in marked contrast to a turnover ratio of 294 percent for government bonds in 2010.4 Liquidity in corporate bond markets in Chile also seems limited when compared to other LAC countries: about 463 percent in Mexico, 123 percent in Brazil, and 75 percent in Colombia. These developments in Chilean corporate bond markets need to be viewed in light of their main institutional investors, pension funds, insurance companies, and, to a lesser extent, mutual funds. These investors, particularly pension funds, provide stable demand for corporate bonds, given their sheer size (about 65 percent of GDP for pension funds and 20 percent for insurance companies in 2010). Pension funds, for instance, held about 50 percent of the stock of bonds in 2010, while insurance companies held 32 percent. Given their status as large market players in corporate bond markets, their investment behavior will be tightly linked to developments in this market. For example, their large size implies that investments are usually made in large amounts, which limits the potential demand for smaller issues. These investors typically pursue buy-and-hold strategies, keeping bonds in their portfolios until maturity, as shown in Opazo, Raddatz, and Schmukler (2009) and Raddatz and Schmukler (2011), which can explain the low liquidity of the secondary private bond markets. In addition, current restrictions on pension fund investments limit their exposure to non-investment-grade issues, thus possibly explaining the low fraction of outstanding high-yield corporate bonds. The long maturity of corporate bonds can also be associated with the maturity structure of the liabilities of pension funds and insurance companies, which allows them to make longer-term investments. 60 emerging issues in financial development The nature of their liabilities, mostly indexed to inflation, also implies a significant demand for inflation-linked bonds. Regulatory changes that took place in the early 2000s may also be related to the timing of these developments in local currency bond markets. For instance, capital market reforms allowed pension funds and insurance companies more flexibility in their investments. The combination of sound macroeconomic and financial frameworks with price stability and credible fiscal and monetary policies, along with reduced macroeconomic volatility, might also have been important. Yet significant challenges remain in addressing some of the limitations of corporate bond markets in Chile. More specifically, greater access for smaller firms and more liquid secondary markets are particularly important goals. Equity Markets in Brazil Equity markets in Brazil have gone through significant changes over the past 10 years with clear improvements in corporate governance. According to Nenova (2003), by the end of the 1990s Brazil had poor investor rights, low enforcement of contract law, and weak accounting standards. However, in December 2000, the São Paulo Stock Exchange (Bovespa) created three new corporate governance listing segments through which issuers could voluntarily adopt corporate governance practices beyond those required by Brazilian corporate law and capital market regulation more generally. Bovespa listing segments include the traditional Bovespa, Level 1, Level 2, and Novo Mercado, with each of these market segments requiring progressively stricter standards of corporate governance.5 The main goal of creating these distinct segments, and of Novo Mercado in particular, was to reverse the weakening of the equity markets in Brazil that was taking place at the end of the 1990s by fostering good corporate governance practices, such as disclosure, trans- parency, and accountability.6 According to Bhojraj and Sengupta (2003) and Shleifer and Vishny (1997), good governance practices increase in- vestor confidence as they tend to reduce agency and information risks. Therefore, companies are likely to have access to capital at lower costs and better conditions, to increase the value and liquidity of their shares, and to improve their operating performance and profitability.7 In fact, since then, equity markets have become more liquid and less concentrated, and a greater number of firms have been issuing equities; hence, larger amounts are being raised in Brazil (figure 1.16). These trends suggest that the improvements in the investor protection environment might have indeed paid off. In spite of a timid beginning, due mostly to a number of external shocks, the Novo Mercado had taken off by the mid-2000s. The number of com- panies listed in these new corporate governance segments of Bovespa rose steadily, while the number of companies listed in the traditional segment of Bovespa decreased during the 2000s. By December 2010, 168 companies were listed in the three segments: 38 companies in Level 1, financial development in latin america 61 Figure 1.16 Activity in Domestic Equity Markets across LAC7 Countries, 1990–2009 a. Average number of firms issuing equity per year 40 35 30 Number of firms 25 20 15 10 5 0 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico LAC7 countries 1990–99 2000–03 2004 2008 b. Average amount of new issues per year as % of GDP 2.5 2.0 1.5 % GDP 1.0 0.5 0.0 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru LAC7 countries 1990–99 2000–08 (continued next page) 62 emerging issues in financial development Figure 1.16 (continued) c. Total value traded per year as % of GDP 25 20 % of GDP 15 10 5 0 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru Uruguay LAC7 countries d. Share of value traded by the top five companies as % total volume traded 80 70 60 % of total value traded 50 40 30 20 10 0 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru LAC7 countries 1990–99 2000–09 Source: SDC Platinum; World Development Indicators; Emerging Markets Database. Note: GDP = gross domestic product. financial development in latin america 63 18 in Level 2, and 112 in Novo Mercado. These trends suggest a migra- tion from the traditional segment to the corporate governance segments.8 According to Gorga (2009), by 2007 the large, established, and successful corporations with alternative sources of financing tended to migrate to segments that required small changes in corporate governance (Levels 1 and 2), while the vast majority of companies listed in the Novo Mercado were new entrants looking at the equity market as a viable option to raise capital.9 Moreover, the improved corporate governance segments of Bovespa have gained market participation, in 2010 representing more than 65 percent of market capitalization and almost 80 percent of value traded (figure 1.17). The implementation of the Novo Mercado has been well received by foreign investors as well. During 2004–06, on average, foreign investors bought 70 percent of the new stock offerings in this segment of the market (Santana 2008). Similar patterns occurred during 2008–10. Santana (2008) has also argued that the Novo Mercado has allowed Brazilian companies, Figure 1.17 Relative Size of the New Corporate Governance Segments as a Percentage of Total Bovespa Market, 2001–10 90 80 70 % of total Bovespa market 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Year Number of companies Value traded Market capitalization Source: Bovespa. 64 emerging issues in financial development and particularly new entrants, to access foreign capital without having to cross-list on international stock markets. For example, among Bovespa’s 27 initial public offerings between 2004 and the first half of 2006, only two companies were listed simultaneously on the New York Stock Exchange. Alternative Markets and Products In recent years, LAC countries have seen the development of less traditional forms of financing; for example, factoring has deepened along with derivative markets and credit by retailers. Quantifying these new developments is, however, not an easy task as cross-country data are typically not available. Therefore, we focus instead on specific country studies or particular datasets that allow us to shed some light on recent trends in these nontraditional markets. Derivative Markets Since the late 1990s, trading of exchange rate derivatives in LAC7 countries has grown in dollar terms and as a percentage of GDP, particularly in Mexico.10 Trading of interest rate contracts in LAC7 more than doubled as a percentage of GDP in the 2000s compared to the 1990s. Nevertheless, derivatives remain relatively illiquid in most emerging markets: turnover rates remain very small in comparison with those in developed countries. For example, the turnover in exchange rate contracts stands at about 1.1 percent of GDP in LAC countries, whereas the turnover in G-7 countries stands at 7.3 percent of GDP. Turnover figures also suggest that foreign exchange derivatives are largely concentrated in U.S. dollar contracts across developing countries, with U.S. dollar contracts representing about 98 percent of the turnover in LAC7. Factoring Factoring is a financial transaction in which accounts receivable (that is, invoices) are sold at a discount to a third party.11 Invoices are typically short term (less than 90 days), so that a market for invoice trading would be equivalent to a high-yield commercial paper market. This is a particularly important market for SME financing. Smaller firms are typically more opaque (as credible information is less available and more limited) and riskier (with higher mortality rates, lower growth, and less profitability), and they usually do not have adequate collateral. Consequently, their access to bank financing is more restricted. Factoring helps them overcome a number of these constraints, allowing them access to short-term financing, mostly for working capital. These operations offer smaller firms financing without collateral, albeit small guarantees might be charged in some cases, as the financial development in latin america 65 underlying credit risk of the transaction belongs to the issuer of the invoice. In addition, factoring can lower the cost of capital for SMEs, because, in many emerging markets, issuers are larger firms with lower credit risk (due, at least in part, to a better credit history) than the SMEs seeking financing. Factoring is an expanding industry, particularly in LAC countries and emerging markets more broadly. According to the International Factors Group, the worldwide industry turnover in 2008 was estimated at €1.2 trillion (the total amount of assigned receivables), and it has been growing—worldwide volumes increased 3.75 percent in 2008 and 15 percent in 2007.12 This expansion in factoring volumes, although slowed during the global financial crisis of 2007–08, has been concentrated mostly in emerging markets and particularly in China, Eastern Europe, and LAC7 countries. Nevertheless, factoring is typically less important in emerging markets than in developed countries. In LAC7, for example, factoring represented 2.6 percent of GDP in 2008–09 compared to about 4 percent for developed countries (figure 1.18a). Chile and Mexico are notable examples in the LAC region where factoring services have developed significantly in recent years and where invoices can actually be traded on organized exchanges or online markets. Factoring in Chile, for example, is one of the largest among emerging markets. In 2009, it had an accumulated volume of €12 billion (10.7 percent of GDP) and about 14,000 users of factoring services, according to the International Factors Group and the Chilean Association of Factoring. Moreover, nonbank factoring companies represent almost 10 percent of this total, according to the Central Bank’s Financial Stability Report (2008). In Mexico, total industry turnover was estimated to be almost €11 billion in 2007 (almost 2 percent of GDP). Nonetheless, factoring is still relatively small compared to bank loans or credit lines. As an alternative to the factoring services typically offered by banks in Chile, Bolsa de Productos is a new initiative that might actually become an important source of SME financing in the near future.13 Although still in its earlier stages, with volumes of about US$100 million per month in 2011, Bolsa de Productos has been growing fast recently—more than 150 percent in 2010 over 2009. This exchange allows some form of reverse factoring, whereby invoices can be discounted and the credit risk borne by the investor is that of the issuers of the invoice. Moreover, no collateral is needed from SMEs posting the invoice.14 Critical to the success of this initiative is the fact that discounting invoices in Bolsa de Productos is cheaper than factoring through banks, and it provides investors with a higher yield than they can get in money markets. Bolsa de Productos is a well-designed initiative with clear solutions for most of the problems affecting SME financing: procedures for clearing and notification of invoices are standardized; insurance companies are active in this market and can guarantee the credit risk of smaller companies; securitization of invoices is also possible, and the “bundling” of invoices 66 emerging issues in financial development Figure 1.18 Alternative Markets and Products in Selected Countries and Regions, 2005–10 a. Total annual volume of factoring 5.0 4.5 4.0 3.5 % of GDP 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 a ) na (7 n ) ) (7 d (3 (7 (6 di pe er ie nce hi In ) ) ro ast ia -7 7 C C om va As G s Eu E LA on d A Ec er th O Countries and regions 2005–07 2008–09 b. Total annual credit provided by financial cooperatives and credit unions 6.0 5.0 4.0 % of GDP 3.0 2.0 1.0 0.0 ) ) na (3 n a (2 d ) (5 (3 (5 ie nce pe er di hi ) ) In ro ast 7 ia -7 C C om va As G s LA Eu E on d A Ec er th O Countries and regions 2005–07 2008–09 (continued next page) financial development in latin america 67 Figure 1.18 (continued) c. Annual gross issuance of securitized assets 9 8 7 6 % of GDP 5 4 3 2 1 0 ) ) (1 n ) (2 d (7 (3 (1 pe er ie nce ) ) ro ast 7 -7 ia C om va As G s LA Eu E on Ad Ec er th O Countries and regions 2005–07 2008–10 Source: Factors Chain International; World Council of Credit Unions; Reserve Bank of Australia; Bank of Canada; Fitch Ratings; Thomson Reuters; TheCityUK Securitization; SIFMA; Moody’s Investors Service. Note: Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. could increase the volumes, making the investment attractive to large institutional investors (pension funds, for example); and competition can be created through an open trading platform.15 Nevertheless, many of these solutions are not yet implemented due to small trading volumes. Since 2001, Mexico, has had an online market for factoring services developed by the Mexican development bank NAFIN (Nacional Financiera), called Cadenas Productivas (Productive Chains).16 This market provides reverse factoring services to SMEs through the creation of chains between large buyers and their suppliers.17 This reverse factoring program is relatively large, having extended US$11.8 billion in financing in 2008, according to NAFIN; and now it represents a significant share of the factoring market in Mexico. According to Klapper (2006), as of mid-2004, the program included 190 large buyers (45 percent of which were private firms) and more than 150,000 suppliers (about 70,000 of which were SMEs), with a turnover of about 4,000 transactions processed daily. 68 emerging issues in financial development All transactions are carried out on an electronic platform, which allows NAFIN to capture economies of scale, since most of the costs of the system are fixed and electronic access enables a large number of firms and financial institutions to participate. In fact, all commercial banks are able to participate in this electronic market. This electronic trading also reduces transaction costs, increases the speed of transactions, and improves security. NAFIN is responsible for the development, production, and marketing costs related to the platform. It operates the system and also handles all the legal work. NAFIN does not charge a fee for the factoring services but instead covers its costs with the interest it charges on its loans. This program has several advantages in dealing with principal-agent problems and transaction costs. First, the buyers that participate in the program, large creditworthy firms, must invite suppliers to join their chain. This reduces principal-agent problems by effectively outsourcing screening to the buyers, who have an informational advantage relative to financial intermediaries. The program is also designed to foster competition among financial institutions and increase information availability, giving transparency to the system and the same access possibility to all intermediaries. The program has been so successful in Mexico that NAFIN has also entered into agreements with development banks in several Latin American countries, including Colombia, El Salvador, and the República Bolivariana de Venezuela, to implement similar programs, while other development banks in the region are also considering replicating this model. Financial Cooperatives and Credit Unions As an alternative to bank financing, financial cooperatives and credit unions are typically financial institutions owned and controlled by their members and operated with the purpose of providing credit and other financial services to them. Hence, they aim mostly at credit provision to households as well as micro, small, and medium enterprises, either formal or informal. Financial cooperatives and credit unions vary significantly in size, ranging from small cooperatives with few members to some that are as large as commercial banks. Not all of these financial institutions are regulated and supervised by central banks and financial regulators. Loans from financial cooperatives and credit unions represent only a small fraction of financial systems in LAC7 countries, particularly compared to G-7 countries.18 Specifically, credit by credit unions represented 5.4 percent of GDP in G-7 countries in 2008–09 and 0.7 percent in LAC7 countries (figure 1.18b). Securitization Structured finance is, in its simplest form, a process in which assets are pooled and transferred to a third party, commonly referred to as a financial development in latin america 69 special-purpose vehicle, which, in turn, issues securities backed by this asset pool. In other words, structured finance transactions can help convert illiquid assets into tradable securities. Typically, several classes of securities (called tranches) with distinct risk-return profiles are issued. Across LAC countries, securitized instruments have shown increasing signs of depth in different asset classes. In particular, gross issuance for LAC countries rose from US$2 billion in 2000 to US$24.4 billion in 2010, with Brazil and Mexico as the largest issuers. As a percentage of GDP, however, they declined during the 2008–10 period relative to 2005–07. Compared to developed countries, the structured finance markets in LAC7 countries remain relatively small and underdeveloped. While issuance in LAC7 countries represented less than 1 percent of GDP, gross issuance of securitized assets represented on average 6 percent of GDP per year in G-7 countries and almost 8 percent in other advanced economies between 2005 and 2007 (figure 1.18c).19 Although some of these issues are cross-border—typically between US$2 billion and US$4 billion over the past five years for LAC7 countries and mostly on futures—domestic markets represent the largest share of this market. For instance, issues in domestic markets represented almost 90 percent of total issuance in 2010 and more than 97 percent in 2009, when cross-border activity was at its lowest point in the 2000s. In addition, the securitization of different asset types has greatly developed—particularly in Brazil and Mexico, where the largest variety of securitized assets is available. The first deals in the region were cross- border futures transactions involving export receivables. Later deals involved financial receivables. More recently, the region has experienced the development of sophisticated asset-backed securitizations, such as new and used car loans, consumer loans, credit card receivables, equipment leases, and mortgage-backed securities. In 2010, most new issues were asset-backed issues (83.1 percent), followed by residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities (11.5 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively). Credit by Retailers: The Case of Chile Retail stores as credit providers seem to be on the rise. Chile is a notable example of this development. Retailers—and, in particular, the largest department stores in the country—have become nontrivial providers of household credit in recent years, and they have been so successful that they are exporting this experience to other countries in the LAC region. Although banks are still the main providers of household credit in Chile, representing 68 percent of total household financial debt, retailers are playing an increasingly important role. Household credit by retailers accounts for 11 percent of total household financial debt, 17 percent of total consumer debt, and 35 percent of nonbank debt (figure 1.19). In addition, the financing that retailers have extended to their customers is 3 percent of GDP. 70 emerging issues in financial development Figure 1.19 Providers of Household and Consumer Credit in Chile, 2008 a. Household debt Car financing University loans Family company funds 3.0 and cooperatives 3.0 6.8 Insurance company loans 7.8 Retailers 11.1 Banks 68.2 b. Consumer debt Others 15 Family company funds 15 And cooperatives 53 Banks 17 Retailers Source: Local sources. financial development in latin america 71 This high penetration of the retail sector in Chile is related to the introduction of in-house credit cards.20 These credit cards issued by department stores became popular in Chile because they offered consumer credit, especially to the middle-income segment of the population, when the bank credit market serving this segment was still in its early stages. Ripley was the first department store to introduce a system of credit in 1976, followed by Falabella and Paris, which launched their credit cards in 1980, and La Polar in 1989. Nowadays, retailers are shifting their focus beyond the middle class to include all segments of the population. For example, La Polar has targeted the middle- and low-income segments that typically do not have access to bank credit and thus depend largely on retailer credit. These cards are used by customers mainly to pay for merchandise purchased at these stores, and they can also be used to get cash advances and to make payments at other outlets, such as drugstores, supermarkets, and gas stations, with which the retailers have entered into alliances. The Chilean retailer card industry now has 16.35 million valid cards— almost one card per inhabitant and about four cards per household. The main providers of credit through credit cards in the retail industry are Falabella, Cencosud, and Ripley. During the first quarter of 2010, Falabella’s credit card was used for 59 percent of sales at its department stores, 28 percent of sales at its home improvement stores, and 18 percent of sales at its supermarkets. Using this acquired expertise in providing consumer credit to households, Chilean retailers are exporting their success and presence in the financial sector to other countries in Latin America. Currently, Falabella operates in Argentina, Colombia, and Peru; Cencosud has already entered the Argentinean, Brazilian, Colombian, and Peruvian markets; Ripley has stores in Peru; La Polar started operating in Colombia in 2010. One notable example of this expansion is Falabella, which, by March 2010, had 775,000 active credit cards in Argentina, 522,000 in Colombia, and 937,000 in Peru. Peru has been the main market for Falabella’s foreign credit business, where it started operating through Financiera CMR S.A. in 1997 (Banco Falabella since 2007). With US$432 million in outstanding loans, today Falabella’s loans represent around 6 percent of total consumer loans in Peru. Exchange-Traded Funds Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are a relatively recent and increasingly popular type of product traded on stock exchanges. They are traded portfolios composed of stocks as well as of commodities and bonds. They provide a greater scope for portfolio diversification and at the same time possess stock-like features, such as transparency, frequent pricing, and ease of trading, which are associated with low trading costs. 72 emerging issues in financial development Currently, the number of ETFs in developed countries is larger than in emerging countries, most likely because of the greater depth and liquidity of their financial systems, as well as the greater sophistication of institutional investors in these markets. Nevertheless, these products have been on the rise in some LAC7 countries like Mexico. Moreover, ETFs are gaining space in secondary markets, with an increasing share of total trading in stock markets. In LAC7 countries, they accounted for 2.2 percent of the trading in 2008–09 compared to 0.1 percent during 2000–03. Players in the Financial System (Saver’s Perspective) LAC’s financial systems have also become more complex from the saver’s perspective. In the past, banks interacted directly with borrowers and lenders, but now there is a greater diversity of players with a broader set of institutions, such as pension funds, mutual funds, and insurance companies, that are intermediating savings, providing economy-wide credit, and offering a broader variety of products, as shown briefly in the section on financial development. In fact, in some emerging countries institutional investors have become even more important than banks. This rise of nonbank intermediaries has been a significant factor in the development of local markets across financial systems of developing countries, and particularly those in LAC, to the extent that they provide a stable demand for financial assets. Nevertheless, as argued below, LAC still has a long way to go in raising the sophistication of its institutional investors, as most of the savings are still channeled to government bonds and bank deposits. Main Financial Intermediaries Although banks continue to play a significant and stable role, nonbank financial intermediaries, such as pension funds, mutual funds, and insurance companies, have been gaining considerable space in LAC7 countries and in other emerging markets around the world (figure 1.20). For instance, pension fund assets represent 19 percent of GDP in LAC7 countries and 15 percent in Asian countries, while mutual funds and insurance companies are usually larger on average in Asian countries than in LAC7 countries. Eastern European countries have smaller but also fast-growing institutional investors. As with most other features of the markets examined so far, these intermediaries are still smaller on average in LAC7 countries than in developed countries, reflecting, to some extent the developed countries’ advanced financial systems. financial development in latin america 73 Figure 1.20 Assets of Pension Funds, Mutual Funds, and Insurance Companies in Selected Countries and Regions, 2000–09 a. Pension funds 40 35 30 25 % of GDP 20 15 10 5 0 ) (5 n ) ) (6 d (4 (7 (7 pe er ie nce ) ) ro ast ia -7 7 C om va As G s Eu E LA on Ad Ec er th O Regions b. Mutual funds 40 35 30 % of GDP 25 20 15 10 5 0 ) (6 n ) a ) (6 d (4 (7 (6 pe er di ie nce ) ) In ro ast ia -7 7 C om va As G s Eu E LA on Ad Ec er th O Countries and regions 2000–04 2005–09 (continued next page) 74 emerging issues in financial development Figure 1.20 (continued) c. Insurance companies 70 60 50 % of GDP 40 30 20 10 0 ) (6 n ) ) (5 d (4 (7 (7 pe er ie nce ) ) ro ast ia -7 7 C om va As G s Eu E LA on Ad Ec er th O Countries, regions, and economies 2000–04 2005–09 Sources: Asociación de Supervisores de Seguros de Latinoamérica; OECD; local sources; Investment Company Institute; Asociación Internacional de Organismos de Supervisión de Fondos de Pensiones. Note: Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. GDP = gross domestic product. The size of each type of institutional investor varies among LAC7 countries, reflecting, in large part, differences in their institutional and regulatory environments. On average, pension funds in LAC7 countries are usually the largest institutional investors (20 percent of GDP), with mutual funds averaging 10 percent of GDP and insurance companies averaging 6 percent. In contrast, in Chile pension funds reach almost 70 percent of GDP, while mutual fund assets are 15 percent of GDP and insurance company assets are 19 percent of GDP. Mutual funds in Brazil are the largest institutional investors (42 percent of GDP), with significantly smaller percentages for insurance companies (8 percent) and pension funds (16 percent). Due to data availability, we can get only a glimpse of the private equity and venture capital funds. These funds, through which investors acquire a percentage of an operating firm, are particularly important for the financing of SMEs. Unsurprisingly, however, private equity and venture financial development in latin america 75 capital funds are still relatively underdeveloped in LAC countries. Private equity funds raised on average US$4.9 billion per year in LAC, a strong contrast to the almost US$46 billion raised in Asia between 2003 and 2009.21 Moreover, over the same period LAC represented only 1.1 percent of total worldwide private equity fund raisings, compared with almost 10 percent for Asian countries, with the rest taking place in the United States and in Europe. Venture capital funds are even less represented in emerging markets in general, with a total of US$12 billion per year raised on average outside the United States and Europe during this period. Albeit smaller in absolute size, these funds have a relatively larger presence in emerging markets: fund raising outside the United States and Europe represented 25 percent over the same period. Although significantly smaller than other institutional investors, private equity and venture capital funds have been growing in the LAC region. In the first half of the 2000s, US$1.2 billion was raised on average in LAC countries, with the number rising to US$7.7 billion in the second half of the decade. Nevertheless, continuing growth for these funds in coming years will require adequate regulatory systems and rigorous disclosure standards. The latter are viewed as a particular issue in LAC countries, as accessing accurate and objective information for nonpublic firms is not straightforward. In this context, effective ex ante due diligence activities, valuation analysis, and ex post business monitoring, which are key for this industry, can be rather difficult. The Nature of the Asset Side Pension funds, mutual funds, and insurance companies provide a stable demand for domestic financial assets, given regulatory limits on their foreign investments, and thus have a potential role in deepening local capital markets across LAC countries. For instance, pension funds in LAC countries typically have less than 11 percent allocated abroad; Chile is the exception, with almost 45 percent allocated abroad in 2009. Surprisingly, however, institutional investors in the region, and in emerging markets more broadly, concentrate a significant fraction of their asset holdings in fixed-income instruments such as bonds and deposits and particularly in government bonds. These investment practices, which currently limit the role of institutional investors in the development of corporate bond and equity markets, are evident in figure 1.21a. Government securities and deposits (and other financial institution assets) accounted for more than 60 percent of the holdings of LAC7 pension funds during 2005–08. Nevertheless, as the figure also shows, this concentration by pension fund portfolios has declined.22 Figure 1.21b illustrates the heterogeneity within LAC countries. Pension funds in some countries (Argentina, Mexico, and Uruguay, for example) are heavily invested in government securities, while in others (like Chile and Peru) pension funds account for a greater share of deposits 76 emerging issues in financial development in their portfolios. Yet declines in both types of assets have taken place. At the same time, the shares of equity and foreign securities have been slowly increasing over the same period. Portfolio allocations to corporate bonds, however, have been relatively stable. Comparable patterns are also observed in the investment structure of mutual funds in LAC countries.23 Funds invest on average a large fraction of their portfolios in government bonds and money market instruments. Like trends in the pension fund industry, funds have been gradually shifting their portfolios toward equity investments (figure 1.22). In Brazil, for example, the share of public sector bonds declined from 73 percent to 48 percent between 2003–04 and 2005–09 on average. In Chile, this fraction declined from 14 percent to 6 percent, although deposits are a stable and substantial share of its portfolio, 63 percent on average Figure 1.21 Composition of Pension Fund Portfolios in Latin America, 1999–08 a. Average for LAC7 countries 100 90 11 14 6 80 9 12 % of total portfolio 70 8 60 21 50 16 40 30 51 20 45 10 0 1999–2004 2005–08 Years Government securities Financial institution securities Private bonds and deposits Equities Foreign securities Mutual funds and other investment (continued next page) financial development in latin america 77 Figure 1.21 (continued) b. Individual LAC7 countries 100 9 6 11 12 8 90 12 15 7 17 11 80 14 33 6 17 34 36 20 36 % of total portfolio 10 70 9 9 6 32 60 11 6 17 50 9 15 11 32 8 88 40 12 73 30 64 61 59 29 29 59 49 11 47 20 30 10 21 13 14 0 1999–2004 2005–08 1999–2004 2005–08 1999–2004 2005–08 1999–2004 2005–08 1999–2004 2005–08 1999–2004 2005–08 Argentina Chile Colombia Mexico Peru Uruguay Years; countries Governemnt securities Financial institution securities Private bonds and deposits Equities Foreign decurities Mutual funds Other investments Source: OECD; AIOSFP; FIAP; local sources. over the same period. This composition of available mutual funds in the region raises the question of whether financial intermediaries or households themselves are responsible for these patterns. For instance, bond and money market funds account for 70 percent of existing mutual funds in LAC7 countries. In contrast, in G-7 and other developed countries, these funds correspond to about 35 percent of all funds. In those countries, equity funds are much more prominent, accounting for between 41 percent and 48 percent of existing funds, whereas in LAC7 countries equity funds typically account for 17 percent of available mutual funds, on average. These trends suggest that institutional investors have not contributed to the development of local markets as much as expected in the LAC region. At the same time, one has to consider that relatively small and illiquid domestic markets can be viewed as unattractive by these investors, particularly by mutual funds that are subject to sudden withdrawals by clients. In other words, asset managers’ incentives can explain, at least in 78 emerging issues in financial development Figure 1.22 Composition of Mutual Fund Portfolios of Five Countries in LAC, 2000–09 a. Brazil 100 90 80 70 % of total assets 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2003–04 2005–09 Deposit certificates Government bonds Private bonds Fixed-income securities backed by government debt Equity Others b. Chile 100 90 80 70 % of total assets 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2000–04 2005–09 Deposits Private bonds Domestic equity Foreign equity Public bonds (continued next page) financial development in latin america 79 Figure 1.22 (continued) c. Colombia 100 90 80 70 % of total assets 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2004 2005–08 Variable income Fixed income Others d. Mexico 100 90 80 70 % of total assets 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2003–04 2005–09 Deposits Domestic public bonds Domestic private bonds Foreign private bonds Foreign public bonds Equity Others (continued next page) 80 emerging issues in financial development Figure 1.22 (continued) e. Peru 100 90 80 70 % of total assets 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2000–04 2005–09 Bank deposits Bonds Equity Foreign equity Others Source: International Financial Statistics; FGV-Rio; Conasev; Superfinanciera; Andima; Banxico. Note: For Peru, we consider the portfolios of Fondos Mutuos and Fondos de Inversiones. Equity includes acciones de capital and acciones de inversion for fondos mutuos, while in the case of investment funds, equities are composed of acciones de capital, fondos de inversion, and otras participaciones until 2002 and “Derechos de participacion patrimonial” from 2004 onward. For Colombia, Fondos Vigilados and Fondos Controlados are reported in different tables for 2002. part, why large institutional investors invest the bulk of their portfolios in government bonds and deposits. This current trap, where investors avoid local corporate capital markets and the markets remain underdeveloped, suggests that there is a great scope for policy actions that channel available funds to foster local markets. Final Thoughts: The Road Ahead This chapter presents a systematic and detailed account of where emerging economies and Latin America in particular stand with respect to financial development. The evidence overall suggests that these countries are in a substantially better position than in the past, even along such dimensions as susceptibility to volatility and crises due to currency and maturity mismatches. financial development in latin america 81 In general, domestic financial systems have continued developing since the 1990s, at the same time that standard measures indicate that international financial integration deepened and that foreign investors continued investing in emerging economies. As a result, more resources have become available in these economies relative to their size—that is, more savings are available for use, especially for the private sector, since governments have been reducing crowding out by demanding fewer funds due to fiscal consolidation. Furthermore, financial systems are becoming more complex and somewhat more diversified. Financing does not depend as much as before on banks, as bonds and equity play a larger role. Among bonds, corporate bonds are also increasing in importance. Regarding financial intermediaries, institutional investors have become much more prominent, most notably pension funds and mutual funds. Moreover, traditional markets and institutions are no longer the sole providers of financing, as other types of financing, like retail chain credit, seem to be gaining momentum. This, in turn, suggests that consumers might be better served now. Moreover, the nature of financing also seems to be changing. Debt is moving toward longer maturities and increasingly being issued in local currencies, which reduces mismatches, while domestic markets seem to be gaining some ground. Overall, these trends suggest safer financial development in emerging economies, which is accompanying the safer international financial integration. Despite all the improvements, one can argue that many emerging economies are still relatively underdeveloped financially. In fact, the countries that have developed the most in recent years are the advanced economies. Therefore, the gap between industrial and emerging economies in financial development has widened even further. As a result, one might expect that the financial sectors of emerging economies will continue to expand in the years to come. There is a notable heterogeneity in the indicators of financial development across emerging economies, including Latin America. While financial development has progressed in LAC, the region lags behind not only developed countries but also other emerging economies, most notably those in Asia. This observation holds true for all sectors of the financial system—banks, bond markets, and equity markets. The only area that appears relatively developed is the institutional investor side, in particular, pension funds. But even there, the assets held by these institutions are concentrated to a large extent in deposits and government bonds. Therefore, Latin America’s financial system is unfortunately less developed than might have been expected, given its intensive reform efforts and improved macroeconomic performance. Moreover, it appears that the region will need many years to overcome the relative underdevelopment of its financial sector. A couple of countries, however, seem to be doing better: Brazil in its equity market and Chile in its corporate bond market. Furthermore, there are some nascent positive changes in the nature of domestic financial markets, with their reduced currency and maturity mismatches. 82 emerging issues in financial development Nonetheless, to a large extent, only a few firms seem to be able to use capital market financing. Latin America has not become a place with finance for all, at least based on the data analyzed in this chapter. What explains the lagging financial development in emerging economies and in Latin America in particular? What explains the persistent mismatch between expectations and outcomes? In this final part of the chapter, we discuss and speculate on some of the possible reasons, based on evidence from various pieces of other work. We also discuss some of the possible avenues for the future. While it is difficult to answer the question of whether the problems lie in the supply or in the demand side of funds, the findings in this chapter suggest that the insufficient financial development does not seem to be determined just by the lack of available funds. In fact, financial underdevelopment seems to coexist with a large pool of domestic and foreign funds in the economy, not least because domestic residents are sometimes induced to save in market-based instruments targeted to domestic markets only. Moreover, funds are also available from foreign investors eager to invest in emerging economies.24 The availability of funds will naturally provide a continuing deepening of some markets. There also may be problems on the demand side, but there is not enough evidence to confirm this. Some surveys indicate that SMEs are not well served, but many owners do not want to lose the control of their firms and do not wish to subject their companies to market forces. Moreover, even when firms complain about poor access to financing, it is not clear that they have worthwhile investment projects. The burden does not seem to rest on aggregate factors alone. The macroeconomic performance and institutional framework have likely hampered financial development in the past, but many developing countries have substantially improved their macroeconomic and institutional stances, and yet financial development has not progressed as expected. In the 2000s, there has been much less crowding out by the government in the financial sector, especially in bond markets and banking. Moreover, corporate governance and other institutional indicators have improved and are not likely to explain the cross-regional and cross-country variation in financial development. Financial globalization could, in principle, be behind the poor domestic development if financial activity (of domestic assets) moved overseas. In a world of financial integration, transactions do not have to take place domestically; that is, firms and households can transact in any market, domestic or foreign. But this does not seem to be the whole story. Some of the domestic development indicators take into account the activity that happens both domestically and abroad. Moreover, internationalization does not seem to be compensating for poor domestic development. Internationalization is positively correlated with financial development within and across regions. Thus, it complements rather than substitutes financial development in latin america 83 for domestic markets. Furthermore, globalization is important for many other countries and regions and thus does not explain the cross-country or cross-regional differences. And developed countries, with more domestic financial development than emerging economies, are even more globalized. Part of the problem seems to lie in the financial intermediation process, since many assets available for investment are not purchased by banks and institutional investors. These institutions hold large resources that were expected to be invested long term and in many parts of the financial sector, not just in a few firms. However, institutional investors seem to shy away from risk, investing short term and following herding and momentum trading strategies, among other practices. Moreover, banks have moved from financing large corporations to financing standardized retail products and some specific lines of credit to SMEs that are easy to commoditize, that can be done on a large scale, and that involve relatively low risk, like leasing and collateral lending. Part of this trend might be due to a regulatory emphasis on stability. However, managers’ risk-taking incentives seem to play an important role. For example, evidence from Chile on mutual funds, pension funds, and insurance companies seems to reinforce this point. In sum, while it could be the case that more assets would help those investors take more risk, the evidence and the literature indicate that the overall functioning of financial systems is not contributing to the degree of financial development envisioned by the promarket reformers. To the extent that part of the problem lies in the financial intermediation process, policy makers face a difficult road ahead. The role of institutional investors is emblematic in this respect. For example, it is not clear how to generate incentives for more risk taking to foster innovation and growth while preserving the stability of the financial system. This problem is particularly acute because households are often forced to allocate a substantial portion of their savings to pension funds. On the one hand, to the extent that funds invest too conservatively, they will underperform relevant benchmarks. On the other hand, generating more risk taking would put households’ funds at higher risk. And riskier behavior makes monitoring of financial intermediaries more difficult. In other words, there is a strong trade-off between stability and development, and it is not clear where the socially optimal outcome lies. To complicate matters more for policy makers, the global financial crisis led to a devaluation of the international paradigms and a questioning of the international regulatory framework. Eventually, emerging economies will need to catch up, grow their financial systems, and take more risk, as they proceed to become more like developed nations. The challenge is how to do so without undermining financial stability. Macroprudential policies that limit expansions constitute a clear example of the dilemma policy makers face. It is difficult to distinguish spurious booms from leapfrogging for the same reasons that it has been difficult to spot bubbles in the financial systems of many developed countries. 84 emerging issues in financial development Notes 1. In complementary work, we took a deeper look within Latin America and compared LAC7 to other South American countries (Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, and República Bolivariana de Venezuela), Central America (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and, exceptionally, due to the characteristics of its economy, the Dominican Republic), the Caribbean (Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago), and offshore financial centers (Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Netherlands Antilles, and Panama). 2. Bonds whose maturity is less than one year (commercial paper mostly) are excluded from these statistics due to data availability. 3. Notice, however, that while nominal bonds are still a very small fraction of total issued corporate bonds, they have increased significantly over the past five years. 4. The trading of bonds issued by banks accounts for a large fraction of total trading in secondary bond markets in Chile—60 percent, on average, during 2010. 5. The main requirement for equity listings in Novo Mercado is the issuance of common voting stocks (that is, the so-called one-share-one-vote rule). This requirement was a response to the predominance of nonvoting stocks known as “preferred stocks” among Brazilian companies, allowing holders of voting stocks to take control of companies by owning small percentages of the total equity. In addition, Novo Mercado also required complying with a number of other good corporate governance practices such as a minimum 25 percent free float, U.S. GAAP reporting, and 100 percent tag-along rights, with all shareholders getting the same conditions in the event that a company was sold. The corporate governance listing segments Level 1 and Level 2 are intermediate segments between the traditional listing segment and the Novo Mercado, their main goal being to facilitate a gradual migration from traditional markets to Novo Mercado. A detailed description of the rules governing these different segments is available on Bovespa’s webpage (http://www.bmfbovespa.com.br). 6. Glaser, Johnson, and Shleifer (2001) and La Porta et al. (1997) show that protection of minority shareholders is fundamental to the development of a country’s capital market. In addition, Klapper and Love (2004) show that good governance practices are more important in countries with weak investor protection and inefficient enforcement. 7. Ashbaugh-Skaife, Collins, and LaFond (2006), for example, find that better corporate governance practices improve corporate credit ratings and reduce bond yields. De Carvalho and Pennacchi (2012) argue, for the case of Brazil, that migration from traditional markets to the Novo Mercado brings positive abnormal returns to shareholders and an increase in the trading volume of shares. Klapper and Love (2004) find that better corporate governance is associated with higher operating performance and higher Tobin’s Q. Joh (2003) concludes that firms with a higher control-ownership disparity exhibit lower profitability. 8. It is important to note that some firms with a traditional Bovespa listing have public debt but not public equity. 9. This argument is consistent with data on the financial reports of Bovespa’s listed companies that show that companies listed in the corporate governance segments, on average, are larger than companies in the traditional market but that companies listed in Levels 1 and 2 are larger than firms listed in the Novo Mercado. 10. The Bank for International Settlements publishes the “Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity,” which provides comprehensive and internationally consistent information on turnover in foreign exchange and interest rate derivative markets for over 50 countries. financial development in latin america 85 11. See de la Torre, Gozzi, and Schmukler (2007c) and Klapper (2006) for a detailed discussion of factoring per se, as well as for a few case studies around the world. 12. The statistics, however, were significantly influenced by a strong euro. Most notably, a large market, such as that in the United Kingdom, actually increased when expressed in British pounds, while it decreased by 4.84 percent when expressed in euros. 13. Currently, main investors in Bolsa de Productos are institutional investors such as mutual funds, investment banks, and portfolio managers. Pension funds are expected to be added to this list soon. 14. Issuers of invoices need to be registered with the exchange. Currently, there are about 170 qualified issuers, out of which about 90 are active, according to Bolsa de Productos. Issuers can also negotiate the extension of their own contracts, and hence Bolsa de Productos is a source of financing for both issuers and holders of invoices. There are restrictions on becoming a qualified issuer— very large firms as well as medium-size firms on the other end can become qualified issuers. Any firm with an invoice from a qualified issuer can use the Bolsa de Productos. 15. For SMEs, discounting invoices in Bolsa de Productos is a cheaper alternative than factoring through banks, for instance, and for investors, it provides a higher yield than money markets. 16. This initiative is similar in nature to Bolsa de Productos in Chile. 17. Once a supplier delivers goods to the buyer and issues an invoice, the buyer posts an online “negotiable document” equal to the amount that will be factored on its NAFIN webpage. Participant financial institutions that are willing to factor this particular receivable post their interest rate quotes for this transaction. Finally, the supplier can access this information and choose the best quote. Once the factor is chosen, the discounted amount is transferred to the supplier’s bank account. The factor is paid directly by the buyer when the invoice is due. 18. We consider credit unions as cooperative financial institutions that are owned and controlled by their members, providing credit and other financial services to them. 19. Net issuance includes issues sold into the market and excludes issues retained by issuing banks, while gross issuance includes those retained issues. 20. In-house credit cards have been an important source of retailers’ profits, and more specifically interest on credit purchases. An example of this is Falabella— operating profits from CMR (its credit card unit) were US$43.9 million in the first quarter of 2010, making the credit business one of the main sources of Falabella’s profit and its most profitable area, with an operating profit margin of 37.4 percent. 21. These statistics are from Preqin, the industry’s leading source of information where country-level information is not available. Therefore, regional statistics cited include all countries geographically located within each region, making them different from the rest of this chapter. 22. The numbers in figure 1.21 are not directly comparable to those in figure 1.22 due to differences in the classification of assets and the sample coverage in countries and years. 23. Data availability prevents us from providing a broader analysis. 24. One could argue that international financial markets are very volatile and that foreign investors are not reliable. But this is the case across countries, and it is difficult to explain the cross-country or cross-regional volatility. Furthermore, international investors seem to be favoring emerging economies in relative terms even in a period of global crisis, although they did pull back from all countries in the wake of the global financial crisis. 86 emerging issues in financial development References Acemoglu, D., and F. Zilibotti. 1997. “Was Prometheus Unbound by Chance? Risk, Diversification, and Growth.” Journal of Political Economy 105: 709–51. Aghion, P., A. Banerjee, and T. Piketty. 1999. “Dualism and Macroeconomic Volatility.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 114: 1359–97. Anzoategui, D., M. S. Martínez Pería, and R. R. Rocha. 2010. “Bank Competition in the Middle East and Northern Africa Region.” Review of Middle East Economics and Finance 6 (2): 26–48. 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There are significant differences in firms’ access to and use of banking services, depending on the size of the enterprise, with access and use being lower among smaller businesses. There are also significant disparities in financial inclusion within Latin America. LAC7 countries rank ahead of their neighbors in the region. LAC7 governments also appear to be doing more than those in Eastern Europe and in developed countries to promote financial inclusion. However, LAC7 countries lag behind those in Asia. Areas that need more government attention include increasing finance to small and The author works for the World Bank’s DECFP unit. The author is grateful to Diego Anzoategui, who provided excellent research assistance. 91 92 emerging issues in financial development medium businesses, bringing down the cost of financial services, and reforming creditor rights. Introduction Improving access to finance and building inclusive financial systems that cater to the needs of a large segment of the population have become an important policy objective. In 2005, the United Nations adopted the goal of building inclusive financial systems across countries, designating that year as the Year of Microcredit. A survey recently conducted by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) shows that 88 percent of regulators in 120 economies that responded to the survey have a legal responsibility to promote at least some aspect of financial inclusion (CGAP 2010).1 The increased interest in financial inclusion comes from a heightened awareness among academics and policy makers of the benefits of having inclusive financial systems. Theoretical studies (Banerjee and Newman 1993; Galor and Zeira 1993; Aghion and Bolton 1997) have shown that financial market frictions that prevent financial inclusion can inhibit human and physical capital accumulation and affect occupational choices, leading to persistent inequality or poverty traps. Moreover, recent empiri- cal research has confirmed that there are positive welfare effects from firms’ and individuals’ gaining access to finance. In particular, studies show that access to credit products increases households’ income and con- sumption (Pitt and Khandker 1998; Khandker 2005; Karlan and Zinman 2010); diminishes income inequality, hunger, and poverty (Burgess and Pande 2005; Khandker 2005; Beck, Levine, and Levkov 2010; Karlan and Zinman 2010); and fosters businesses’ investments and profitability (Karlan and Zinman 2009; Banerjee et al. 2009). Moreover, other stud- ies show that access to savings products increases savings (see Aportela 1999), empowers women (Ashraf, Karlan, and Yin 2010), and promotes productive investments and consumption (Dupas and Robinson 2009). Where does Latin America stand with regard to financial inclusion? This chapter examines this question from various perspectives. First, the chapter characterizes financial inclusion in the region and compares it to that in other regions, using supply-side data obtained from bank regulatory authorities. In particular, we examine indicators such as the number of branches, automated teller machines (ATMs), loans, and deposits per capita. Second, we analyze barriers (monetary and nonmonetary) to the use of banking services from a survey of banks and compare Latin America to other regions. We focus on indicators like minimum balances and documentation requirements to open accounts, fees charged on deposits and loans, the number of places where bank customers can apply for loans and open deposit accounts, and the number of days to process loan applications. Third, the chapter examines demand-side data from firm-level surveys conducted by the World Bank across developing countries and from household surveys done by the Corporación Andina de financial inclusion in latin america and the caribbean 93 Fomento (CAF) in the largest Latin American cities. Using firm-level data, we examine the percentage of firms that have deposit accounts and, separately, loans, as well as the shares of fixed assets and working capital financed by banks. Using household demand-side data, we analyze the share of house- holds that have an account or a loan and the reasons why households do not have access or choose not to use these services. Finally, the chapter analyzes the role of governments in the region in promoting financial inclusion. In particular, we try to establish how Latin America compares to other regions when it comes to adopting policies to promote financial inclusion. We concentrate on analyzing access to and use of banking services because banks dominate the financial sector in Latin America and because data for the banking sector are more readily available across countries, facilitating the comparison of financial inclusion in Latin America to that in other regions. However, wherever possible we also present data on nonbanks and refer to initiatives that include them. There are a number of caveats and limitations to our analysis. First, as mentioned above our analysis centers on banks and largely ignores non- bank institutions. Second, we focus on savings and credit services and, due to lack of data, ignore insurance services. Third, indicators on financial inclusion like the number of deposits or loans per capita may overesti- mate the extent of outreach, since some individuals and firms might have more than one account. Fourth, the supply-side data do not distinguish between the use of banking services by individuals and by firms. Finally, in analyzing the role of the government in promoting financial inclusion, we are able to document only efforts and policies, but we cannot conduct a welfare analysis of the impact of these policies.2 The rest of the chapter is organized as follows. We next discuss the complexities of defining and measuring financial inclusion. We then exam- ine supply-side indicators of financial inclusion, comparing Latin America to other developing and developed countries. The following section com- pares barriers to the use of financial services in Latin America to those in other developing and developed countries. Next, we analyze demand-side data from firms and households on the use of and access to financial ser- vices in Latin America and explore the role of the government in promot- ing financial inclusion. The last section offers concluding observations. Measuring Financial Inclusion Financial inclusion—or broad access to financial services—is hard to measure in practice. A basic challenge in measuring it is to distinguish between access to and use of financial services. Individuals may choose not to open an account or to borrow, even if services are available at reasonable prices, due to cultural or religious reasons or because they have no demand, reducing use relative to access. Hence, access refers primarily to the supply of services, whereas use is determined by demand 94 emerging issues in financial development as well as supply. Voluntary self-exclusion does not constitute a problem of access. Similarly, financial inclusion does not mean that the supply of financial services always needs to meet the demand. In particular, we do not expect borrowers without profitable investment opportunities or with a bad credit history to be granted loans. Therefore, inferences about financial inclusion from measures of use of financial services do not nec- essarily imply the existence of market failures that warrant government intervention. Nonetheless, measuring use of financial services is the first and most readily available way to assess financial inclusion. There are two main approaches to quantifying financial inclusion. Perhaps the most informative approach is to survey individuals and firms about their use of financial services. To the extent that surveys are nation- ally representative, they can provide reliable information about the percent- age of the population or the share of firms that is financially included. One example of such efforts is the Enterprise Surveys that the World Bank has conducted in over 120 countries since 2002. Household surveys that mea- sure the use of financial services, however, are available for only a relatively small subset of countries.3 Moreover, it is usually difficult to compare the results of these surveys across countries due to differences in wording and methods, plus there are also some questions about the reliability and rep- resentativeness of survey results.4 In the case of Latin America, in recogniz- ing the limitations of the existing surveys, the CAF has recently conducted its own surveys to document access to and use of financial services in the region. However, because such surveys are not available for countries out- side the region, it is difficult to benchmark the region against others using these data. Also, these surveys cover only the largest cities in the region. An alternative approach to measuring the extent of access to and use of financial services is to rely on more easily collected supply-side information provided by financial institutions and gathered by regulators on the number of branches, ATMs, deposit accounts, and loans per capita.5 While available for a large number of countries, this information is not without its own limi- tations. Unlike survey data, these data do not provide details on the charac- teristics of households and firms that use financial services. Also, aggregate figures may be only rough proxies for the extent of the use of financial ser- vices. For instance, the total number of deposit accounts in a country may differ significantly from the number of actual users, since individuals may have more than one account. In addition, most countries do not distinguish between corporate and individual deposit accounts. Nevertheless, aggregate indicators tend to be closely correlated with the share of households that use financial services estimated from household surveys when available (Beck, Demirgüç-Kunt, and Martinez-Peria 2007; Honohan 2008). In the analysis that follows, we make use of both demand (survey-based) and supply-side data to characterize financial inclusion in Latin America. Our analysis distinguishes between a core group of larger and more devel- oped countries in the region, which we call LAC7 (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, financial inclusion in latin america and the caribbean 95 Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay), and the rest of Latin America, which we separate into two groups: Central America (Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua) and South America (Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, and the República Bolivariana de Venezuela). We also compare the LAC7 group to G-7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdon, and the United States), to other developed countries (Australia, Finland, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, and Sweden), to developing countries in Asia (China, India, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand), and to Eastern European countries (Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, the Russian Federation, and Turkey). Supply-Side Evidence on Financial Inclusion Traditionally, the presence of a branch or an ATM has typically been considered a prerequisite for financial inclusion, as gateways for individuals and firms to access financial services.6 The median number of branches (13) and ATMs (37) per 100,000 adults in LAC7 (figure 2.1) is smaller than that in Figure 2.1 Median Number of Bank Branches and ATMs per 100,000 Adults in Selected Countries and Regions, 2009 (or latest available year) 100 80 Number 60 40 20 0 ia st DR a pe -7 a 7 ie d a (+ eric di C om ce ic As G ro ) s LA er In on an Eu m Am Ec dv lA n rA h er tra ut e en So th Ea C O Countries and regions Median branches per Median ATMs per 100,000 adults 100,000 adults Source: CGAP 2009, 2010. Note: LAC7 = Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay; ATM = automated teller machine; DR = Dominican Republic. 96 emerging issues in financial development Eastern European countries (22 branches and 54 ATMs per 100,000 adults), in G-7 economies (24 branches and 118 ATMs), and in other developed countries (32 branches and 73 ATMs). As shown in figure 2.1, however, the number of branches and ATMs for LAC7 countries is similar to that in the comparator Asian economies (11 branches and 34 ATMs). In a comparison of LAC7 countries to the rest of Latin America, LAC7 countries are clearly ahead when we consider differences in medians without controlling for other factors. At the same time, figures for Central American countries exceed those for the group of South American countries. We characterize the use of banking services across countries by exam- ining data on the number of deposit accounts and the number of loans outstanding per 1,000 adults. Figure 2.2 shows that the use of deposit services in LAC7 countries, where the median is 906 deposit accounts per 1,000 adults, is comparable to that observed for Asia (977) and for non-G-7 developed countries (918), but that it is below the median for economies in Eastern Europe (1,700) and for the G-7 countries (2,022). Use of deposit accounts within Latin America varies considerably, espe- cially if we compare South American countries to those in Central America and in LAC7. The median number of deposit accounts per 1,000 adults in South America (453) is half that observed for LAC7 countries (906) and for Central American economies (825). Figure 2.2 Median Number of Bank Deposit Accounts and Loan Accounts per 1,000 Adults in Selected Regions and Economies, 2009 (or latest available year) 2,500 2,000 Number 1,500 1,000 500 0 ia st DR a pe -7 ia 7 So mie ed a Ea (+ ric C ic As d G ro o c n ) s LA er In e on n Eu m a Am Ec dv lA A h er tra ut er en th C O Countries and regions Median deposit accounts per 1,000 adults Median loans per 1,000 adults Source: CGAP 2009, 2010. Note: DR = Dominican Republic. financial inclusion in latin america and the caribbean 97 The use of loans in LAC7 countries, with a median of 498 loans per 1,000 adults, exceeds that observed for most groups of comparator coun- tries, including G-7 economies (for which the median number of loans per 1,000 adults is 439). The only exception appears to be non-G-7 countries, where the median number of loans is 633. It is important to note, how- ever, that data on the number of loans are available for a small number of countries—certainly fewer than the number of countries for which we have data on deposits, branches, and ATMs. Are the differences we document in the number of branches, ATMs, deposits, and loans between Latin America and the rest of the world sig- nificant once we control for differences in income and population density? Figure 2.3 plots the actual versus the predicted number of branches per 100,000 adults from a regression of log branches controlling for log gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and log population density. Figure 2.4 Figure 2.3 Actual versus Predicted Number of Branches per 100,000 Adults in LAC and Comparators, 2009 (or latest available year) 50 40 Number of actual branches GTM 30 20 10 ECU 0 HND 0 10 20 30 40 50 Number of predicted branches LAC7 Rest of LAC Other comparators Rest Source: Calculations based on CGAP 2009, 2010. Note: Predicted numbers were obtained regressing the log of branches per 100,000 adults on the log of gross domestic product per capita in constant purchasing power parity terms and the log of population density. LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean; HND = Honduras; ECU = Ecuador; GTM = Guatemala. “Rest” refers to all countries with available data not in LAC or included in the “other comparators” group. 98 emerging issues in financial development Figure 2.4 Actual versus Predicted Number of ATMs per 100,000 Adults in LAC and Comparators, 2009 (or latest available year) 200 CRI 150 Number of actual ATMs BRA 100 50 0 0 50 100 150 200 Number of predicted ATMs LAC7 Rest of LAC Other comparators Rest Source: Calculations based on CGAP 2009, 2010. Note: Predicted numbers were obtained regressing the log of ATMs per 100,000 adults on the log of gross domestic product per capita in constant purchasing power parity terms and the log of population density. LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean; ATM = automated teller machine; BRA = Brazil; CRI = Costa Rica. “Rest” refers to all countries with available data not in LAC or included in the “other comparators” group. shows a similar regression for the number of ATMs per 100,000 adults. Both figures show that with some exceptions (like Ecuador and Honduras in the case of figure 2.3), the values for countries in Latin America are not far from the 45-degree line. Hence, although the median number of branches and ATMs in the region is lower than that observed for other regions (primarily for the G-7, other developed countries, and Eastern Europe), the availability of branches and ATMs is fairly close to what we would predict, given the region’s income and population density. The use of deposits and loans in Latin American countries also does not seem to deviate much from what we would expect based on the region’s income and population density. Figure 2.5 plots the actual versus the pre- dicted number of deposit accounts per 1,000 people from a regression financial inclusion in latin america and the caribbean 99 Figure 2.5 Actual versus Predicted Number of Deposits per 1,000 Adults in LAC and Comparators, 2009 (or latest available year) 3,500 3,000 Number of actual accounts 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 PRY 0 0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 Number of predicted accounts LAC7 Rest of LAC Other comparators Rest Source: Calculations based on CGAP 2009, 2010. Note: Predicted numbers were obtained regressing the log of ATMs per 100,000 adults on the log of gross domestic product per capita in constant purchasing power parity terms and the log of population density. LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean; ATM = automated teller machine; PRY = Paraguay. “Rest” refers to all countries with available data not in LAC or included in the “other comparators” group. controlling for GDP per capita and population density. Figure 2.6 shows similar results for the number of loans per 1,000 people. With few excep- tions (in particular Paraguay), most countries in Latin America lie above the 45-degree line, plotting actual versus predicted deposit and loan accounts. Overall, the raw statistics on the number of branches, ATMs, and depos- its suggest that countries in LAC are on a par with economies in Asia but lag behind developed countries and developing economies in Eastern Europe. However, once we control for income and population density—variables that are bound to affect the availability and the use of financial services— these differences do not appear to be significant. In the case of the number of loans, we find that the use of loans in Latin America appears to exceed that for most other regions, even when we do not control for differences 100 emerging issues in financial development Figure 2.6 Actual versus Predicted Number of Loans per 1,000 Adults in LAC and Comparators, 2009 (or latest available year) 1,500 1,200 Number of actual loans 900 600 300 0 0 300 600 900 1,200 1,500 Number of predicted loans LAC7 Rest of LAC Other comparators Rest Source: Calculations based on CGAP 2009, 2010. Note: Predicted numbers were obtained regressing the log of ATMs per 100,000 adults on the log of gross domestic product per capita in constant purchasing power parity terms and the log of population density. LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean; ATM = automated teller machine. in income and population density. Note, however, that the data on loan use are available only for a small sample of economies. Furthermore, it is important to keep in mind that our proxies for the use of loans and deposits are likely to overestimate the true use of banking services, since more than one firm or individual could have more than one bank account or loan. Supply-Side Barriers to Financial Inclusion In characterizing financial inclusion, we must examine the degree to which there are barriers to the use of financial services. These could refer to mon- etary barriers (such as fees or minimum balances) but also to nonmonetary obstacles (like documentation requirements, the number of locations where individuals can open accounts or apply for loans, the number of days to pro- cess a loan application, and so forth). Barriers matter for financial inclusion financial inclusion in latin america and the caribbean 101 because, to the extent that they increase the cost or affect the convenience of using banking services, they can reduce individuals’ or firms’ demand for such services. In what follows, we use data from a survey of financial institu- tions conducted by the World Bank (see Beck et al. 2008) during 2004–05 to quantify barriers to the use of financial services. Because these data are available only for the largest countries in Latin America, we are not able to compare LAC7 countries to the other Latin American regions. Figure 2.7 shows the minimum amount needed to open a deposit account (expressed as a percentage of GDP per capita) across regions. Figure 2.7 Minimum Amount to Open and Maintain a Deposit Account, as a Percent of GDP per Capita in Selected Countries and Regions, 2009 (or latest available year) 9 8 7 6 Percent 5 4 3 2 1 0 LAC7 Asia India Eastern Europe Countries and regions Minimum amount to open a checking account Minimum amount to open a savings account Minimum amount to be maintained In a checking account Minimum amount to be maintained in a savings account Source: Beck et al. 2008. Note: For most of these countries, there are no minimum requirements (or the requirements are very low relative to GDP). China, the G-7, and other advanced countries are not shown because the values for the variables are zero. GDP = gross domestic product. 102 emerging issues in financial development At 2 percent for opening checking accounts and at 1 percent for savings accounts, the median balances required by banks in LAC7 countries are generally in line with those in most developing countries, although they exceed the median balances for developed countries. The minimum bal- ances required for maintaining savings and checking accounts (approx- imately 0 percent of GDP per capita), however, are lower than those required in most developing countries and are in accord with practices in developed economies. Deposit fees in Latin America tend to be higher than those observed in other regions (figure 2.8). While the median annual fees on checking (savings) accounts amount to 1.4 percent (0.5 percent) of GDP per capita in LAC7 countries, fees elsewhere range from 0.7 (0.3) in Asia, 0.2 (0) in Eastern Europe, and 0.2 (0) in G-7 countries. Fees on consumer and residential (mortgage) loans in Latin America, which amount to 1.8 percent of GDP per capita and 1.4 percent, respec- tively, significantly exceed those in most comparator countries (figure 2.9). For example, consumer loan fees are 1.4 percent in Asia and Eastern Europe, while they are closer to 1 percent in G-7 countries. Fees on Figure 2.8 Median Checking and Savings Accounts Annual Fees as a Percent of GDP per Capita, 2009 (or latest available year) 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 Percent 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 LAC7 Asia China India Eastern G-7 Other Europe Advanced Economies Countries and regions Annual fees checking account Annual fees savings account Source: Beck et al. 2008. Note: GDP = gross domestic product. financial inclusion in latin america and the caribbean 103 Figure 2.9 Median Loan Fees as a Percent of GDP per Capita, 2009 (or latest available year) 2.5 2.0 1.5 Percent 1.0 0.5 India 0.0 LAC7 Asia China India Eastern G-7 Other Europe Advanced Economies Countries and regions Mortgage loan fee Consumer loan fee SME loan fee Business loan fee Source: Beck et al. 2008. Note: GDP = gross domestic product. other types of loans in LAC7 countries, however, are quite close to those observed in other regions. Fees on small and medium enterprise (SME) loans in LAC7 are 1.1 percent, while they are 1.2 percent in developing Asia, 1.4 percent in Eastern Europe, and 1 percent in G-7 countries. As for nonmonetary barriers to the use of financial services, we find that the number of documents required to open deposit accounts in Latin America exceeds what is required in most other countries (figure 2.10). Most notably, while three documents are required in Latin America to open a checking account, two documents are required in G-7 countries, and only one document is needed in other advanced economies. The number of locations where bank customers can open a deposit account or apply for a loan, however, is comparable to other developing countries or greater, even compared to G-7 economies (see figure 2.11). The median number of locations where banks in LAC7 countries allow customers to apply for loans is 4.2 (headquarters, branches, nonbranch outlets, or electronically), while it is close to 3 in the case of most other comparators. Among LAC7 countries, like in most other countries outside 104 emerging issues in financial development Figure 2.10 Number of Documents Required to Open a Bank Account in Selected Countries and Regions, 2007 (or latest available year) 3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0 Number 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 LAC7 Asia China India Eastern G-7 Other Europe Advanced Economies Countries and regions Number of documents needed to open a checking account (out of 5) Number of documents needed to open a savings account (out of 5) Source: Beck et al. 2008. the region, bank customers have two types of locations (headquarters or branches) where they can go to open accounts. The time it takes for a bank to process a financial contract (for exam- ple, a loan application) can also be perceived as a hurdle to using banking services. The World Bank survey reveals that with the exception of resi- dential mortgages, which generally take 14 days to process, the number of days required to process other loans in LAC7 countries is in line with that in other developing regions (figure 2.12). Overall, the main barriers to the use of financial services in Latin America appear to be monetary costs or fees. Table 2.1 shows regressions of deposit and residential mortgage loan fees against a number of pos- sible determinants, including a dummy for LAC7 countries. We find that even after controlling for differences in banking sector structure, in the institutional environment, and in per capita income across countries, fees charged by banks in Latin America are higher. financial inclusion in latin america and the caribbean 105 Figure 2.11 Number of Locations to Submit Loan Applications or Open Deposit Accounts in Selected Countries and Regions, 2007 (or latest available year) 5.0 4.5 4.0 3.5 3.0 Number 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 LAC7 Asia China India Eastern G-7 Other Europe Advanced Economies Countries and regions Locations to submit loan applications (out of 5 options) Locations to open deposit accounts (out of 3 options) Source: Beck et al. 2008. Demand-Side Evidence on Financial Inclusion To characterize the demand for financial services and to provide demand- side evidence of the use of financial services, we rely on firm-level and household-level data collected through surveys. In particular, we analyze data available from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys for Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe and from recent household surveys conducted by the CAF in 17 cities in nine countries in Latin America. We characterize firms’ use of and access to banking services through a number of indicators constructed from the Enterprise Surveys database. First, we examine the percentage of firms that have a deposit account. Second, we examine the use of credit products. Then, we construct an indicator variable that equals 1 if the enterprise has an overdraft, loan, line of credit, or any bank financing for working capital or for fixed-asset purchases. We also look at the median percentage of working capital and separately at fixed assets financed by banks. 106 emerging issues in financial development Figure 2.12 Number of Days Required to Process a Loan Application in Selected Countries and Regions, 2007 (or latest available year) 50 45 40 35 30 Number 25 20 15 10 5 0 -7 ia a 7 na ro ern ie d di C As G o m ce hi LA In Eu ast pe s C o n van E E c Ad er th O Countries and regions Days to process a mortgage loan Days to process a consumer loan Days to process an SME loan Days to process a business loan Source: Beck et al. 2008. Note: SME = small and medium enterprise. In analyzing the data from Enterprise Surveys, we distinguish between large firms and SMEs. Large firms are those with 100 or more employees, while SMEs are those that employ between 5 and 99 workers. Because SMEs tend to be more opaque and more vulnerable to economic volatility, they are generally expected to face more constraints in accessing banking services. The vast majority of large firms and SMEs in Latin America have a bank account. Among LAC7 countries, almost 100 percent of large firms and 95 percent of SMEs have a bank account (figure 2.13). The use of bank accounts is also widespread among firms in Central America, where 99 percent of large firms and 87 percent of SMEs use bank accounts. In comparison, 100 percent of large firms and 98 percent of SMEs in Eastern Europe use bank accounts. The use of bank credit among large firms in Latin America is more pervasive than among firms in Asia and Eastern Europe (figure 2.14). Table 2.1 Regressions for Deposit and Loan Fees Annual fees checking account Annual fees savings account Variables (% of GDPPC) (% of GDPPC) Fee mortgage loan LAC7 2.47 3.014 4.222 2.153 1.203 1.132 2.501 2.348 2.852 [3.30]*** [2.11]** [2.16]** [3.18]*** [2.62]** [2.27]** [1.88]* [1.85]* [1.81]* Countries outside 4.141 0.892 0.158 1.454 0.431 −0.251 4.608 1.311 0.729 comparator group [2.96]*** [1.01] [0.13] [1.95]* [1.15] [−0.56] [1.54] [1.64] [0.69] Concentration 0.019 0.058 −0.009 0.014 −0.021 −0.013 (% of assets held by top 5 banks) [0.72] [1.62] [−0.90] [1.62] [−0.80] [−0.36] 0.242 0.307 0.014 −0.007 −0.052 −0.09 Legal rights index [1.08] [1.01] [0.18] [−0.10] [−0.27] [−0.45] Credit information −0.409 −0.533 0.137 0.203 −0.049 −0.053 index [−1.01] [−1.04] [0.99] [1.72]* [−0.16] [−0.20] Cost of enforcing 0.077 0.068 0.013 0.014 0.029 0.048 contracts [3.11]*** [2.56]** [1.46] [2.61]** [0.84] [1.26] Heritage index of 0.089 0.074 0.023 0.017 0.053 0.064 financial freedom [1.84]* [1.14] [1.59] [0.93] [2.12]** [1.41] 107 Table 2.1 Regressions for Deposit and Loan Fees (continued) 108 Annual fees checking account Annual fees savings account Variables (% of GDPPC) (% of GDPPC) Fee mortgage loan Log of GDPPC (PPP) −1.51 −2.157 −0.549 −0.967 −0.665 −1.053 [−1.97]* [−2.31]** [−2.05]** [−3.06]*** [−1.36] [−1.92]* Share of bank assets −0.027 −0.011 −0.003 held by government [−0.57] [−1.03] [−0.12] banks Share of bank assets 0.03 −0.002 0.001 held by foreign banks [1.17] [−0.36] [0.07] Constant −0.906 5.809 9.756 −1.588 2.637 5.699 0.607 5.182 7.384 [−1.38] [0.82] [1.14] [−2.41]** [1.21] [2.15]** [0.93] [1.21] [1.55] Observations 69 59 45 69 59 45 66 58 44 2 0.0152 0.122 0.142 0.0265 0.166 0.296 0.00291 0.0552 0.0967 Pseudo R Note: Table 2.1 shows tobit estimations for deposit and mortgage loan fees against country dummies along with a series of variables proxying for bank structure, institutional environment, and income per capita. In particular, LAC7 is a dummy that equals 1 for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay, Countries outside comparator group is a dummy that takes the value of 1 for countries other than those in the comparator group, which includes G-7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States), other developed countries (Australia, Finland, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Spain and Sweden), comparable countries in Asia (China, India, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand), and in Eastern Europe (Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, the Russian Federation, and Turkey). Robust t-statistics are in brackets. *,**, and *** denote significance at the 10, 5, and 1 percent significance level. GDPPC = gross domestic product per capita. financial inclusion in latin america and the caribbean 109 Figure 2.13 Firms’ Use of Bank Accounts in Selected Regions, 2010 (or latest available year) 100 90 80 Percent 70 60 50 40 30 Central America LAC7 South America Eastern Europe (+DR) Regions % of large enterprises % of SMEs Source: Enterprise Surveys database. Note: DR = Dominican Republic; SME = small and medium enterprise. Figure 2.14 Firms’ Use of Credit Products in Selected Regions, 2010 (or latest available data) 100 90 80 70 60 Percent 50 40 30 20 10 0 Central LAC7 South Asia Eastern America (+DR) America Europe Regions Large enterprises SMEs Source: Enterprise Surveys database. Note: DR = Dominican Republic; SME = small and medium enterprise. 110 emerging issues in financial development While 91 percent of large firms in LAC7 countries use bank credit to finance their operations, only 71 percent of firms in Asia and 79 percent in Eastern Europe use bank credit. In Latin America, the percentage of large firms that use credit is very similar. The share of large firms with credit is 90 percent in Central America and 89 percent in South America. There is a noticeable difference between the share of large and small firms that use credit products. This difference is not particular to Latin America. Across all regions, the share of firms that use credit is much smaller for SMEs than for large firms. Among LAC7 countries, 73 percent of SMEs use bank credit products. This percentage is lower in Eastern Europe, where it stands at 65 percent, and in Asia, where less than half of SMEs use credit products. In Latin America, small firms in non-LAC7 countries are less likely to use credit products than those in LAC7 coun- tries: only 64 percent of SMEs in Central America and 68 percent in South America use bank credit. As for the share of bank credit that firms use to finance their opera- tions, we find that large firms in LAC7 countries tend to use more bank credit to finance their purchases of fixed assets than large firms in Asia, Eastern Europe, and the rest of Latin America (figure 2.15). Among large firms in LAC, the median share of fixed assets financed by bank credit is 38 percent, while it is 28 percent among large firms in Eastern Europe and 22 percent for the same type of firms in Asia. In Latin America, the median share of fixed assets financed by bank credit among large firms is 27 percent in South America and 23 percent in Central America. With the exception of Eastern Europe, the median share of fixed assets financed by banks among SMEs is lower than that for large firms. In the case of LAC7 countries, the median share of fixed assets financed by banks among SMEs is 24 percent, 14 percentage points lower than the median among large firms. Relative to other regions, the median share for LAC7 countries is higher than for Asian countries (21 percent), but lower than for SMEs in Eastern Europe, where the median share of fixed assets financed by banks among SMEs is 33 percent. In Latin America, the share of fixed assets financed by banks in LAC7 countries is similar to that in South American countries (23 percent) but significantly exceeds that share for Central America, where it stands at only 13 percent. Regarding the share of working capital financed by banks, the median for both SMEs and large firms in LAC7 exceeds that observed across all other country groups (figure 2.16). In particular, the median share of working capital financed by banks stands at 29 percent for large firms and 19 percent for SMEs in LAC7 countries. In the case of Asian countries, the median share of working capital financed by banks is 20 percent among large firms and 16 percent among SMEs. Among countries in Eastern Europe, the median is 15 percent for large firms and only 9 percent for SMEs. In Latin America, the share of working capital financed by banks among large firms is greater in South America (25 percent) than it is in financial inclusion in latin america and the caribbean 111 Figure 2.15 Percentage of Fixed Assets Financed by Banks in Selected Regions, 2010 (or latest available year) 40 35 30 25 Percent 20 15 10 5 0 Central LAC7 South Asia Eastern America (+DR) America Europe Regions Large enterprises SMEs Source: Enterprise Surveys database. Note: DR = Dominican Republic; SME = small and medium enterprise. Central America (19 percent), but the opposite is true when it comes to SMEs. The median share of working capital financed by banks among SMEs is 15 percent in Central America and 12 percent in South America. Overall, the Enterprise Surveys indicate that the use of bank deposit products is widespread in Latin America. However, the use of and access to credit are less pervasive, especially among SMEs. Firms in Latin America (especially those in LAC7 countries), though, do not appear to be lagging firms in other developing countries in their access to and use of bank credit. Contrary to the case of firms, where comparable surveys document- ing their access to and use of financial services exist for many countries, information at the household level is very limited and hard to compare across countries because the survey instruments and the samples vary from country to country. However, the CAF has recently attempted to remedy this problem for Latin America by conducting a survey of households in nine countries and 17 cities in the region. Below, we reproduce some of the tables from their study (see CAF 2011), showing the use of saving and credit services across cities in the region (see tables 2.2 and 2.3). 112 emerging issues in financial development Figure 2.16 Percentage of Working Capital Financed by Banks in Selected Regions, 2010 (or latest available year) 30 25 20 Percent 15 10 5 0 Central LAC7 South Asia Eastern America (+DR) America Europe Regions Large enterprises SMEs Source: Enterprise Surveys database. Note: DR = Dominican Republic; SME = small and medium enterprise. Household surveys were conducted by the CAF in five of the LAC7 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Uruguay—the LAC5. The surveys revealed that 51 percent of households in LAC5 countries have an account (table 2.2). Among households that do not have an account, the main reasons cited include lack of funds (61 percent) or absence of a job (19 percent). Only 11 percent of households gave not trusting financial institutions or not being able to meet the requirements to open an account as reasons for not having an account, and 7 percent complained about high fees. The statistics on the use of bank accounts among households in countries outside the LAC5 are very similar to those described above. Approximately 52 percent of households have an account, and, among those that do not, 72 percent mention lack of money as the main reason for not having an account. Only 5 percent of households complain about high fees, and 13 percent mention not meeting the requirements to open an account. Overall, demand considerations seem to be the main explanation for half of households not using an account. Table 2.2 Household Use of Deposit Accounts in Latin America Do you Reasons for not having an account have an Does Does not Cannot account with Prefers to not trust see the meet the a financial Does not Does not hold funds in financial advantages requirements institution? have enough have a job other ways institutions of having an to open an High fees Country City (%) money (%) (%) (%) (%) account (%) account (%) (%) Argentina Buenos Aires 42.1 53.8 21.1 19.1 15.2 7.6 17.2 1.7 Córdoba 46.5 55.0 17.9 4.6 7.8 22.8 10.7 1.6 Bolivia La Paz 35.7 72.9 16.6 16.3 16.8 12.6 12.1 8.2 Santa Cruz 34.1 56.9 9.5 20.3 15.4 5.4 8.5 10.0 Brazil San Pablo 72.5 51.2 14.0 5.5 1.8 28.7 13.4 14.6 Río de Janeiro 65.6 54.6 19.5 12.7 4.9 17.1 13.2 12.2 Colombia Bogotá 51.6 62.7 24.4 15.3 16.7 19.5 9.1 9.4 Medellín 41.9 75.1 30.5 35.8 5.9 28.7 11.2 4.7 Ecuador Quito 70.7 71.4 18.3 19.4 34.9 13.1 13.1 6.3 Guayaquil 36.9 82.5 27.1 16.2 22.3 19.4 10.9 3.7 (continued next page) 113 Table 2.2 Household Use of Deposit Accounts in Latin America (continued) 114 Do you Reasons for not having an account have an Does Does not Cannot account with Prefers to not trust see the meet the a financial Does not Does not hold funds in financial advantages requirements institution? have enough have a job other ways institutions of having an to open an High fees Country City (%) money (%) (%) (%) (%) account (%) account (%) (%) Panama Ciudad de Panamá 52.7 68.6 27.6 19.2 6.5 2.7 14.6 7.7 Peru Lima 38.4 59.1 21.0 23.2 21.6 14.3 8.7 16.5 Arequipa 38.9 56.6 13.8 31.5 19.9 2.5 4.7 9.9 Uruguay Montevideo 55.4 69.5 15.8 10.9 10.5 7.5 9.0 1.1 Salto 55.4 74.7 13.6 7.9 1.9 7.9 14.3 2.3 Venezuela, Caracas RB 81.6 74.3 37.6 30.3 21.1 19.3 20.2 0.0 Maracaibo 50.4 78.8 21.2 19.8 20.1 1.4 8.5 2.7 Average LAC5 50.8 61.3 19.2 16.7 10.6 15.7 11.2 7.4 Other LAC 51.7 72.2 22.5 20.2 19.6 10.5 12.6 5.5 Source: CAF 2011. Table 2.3 Household Use of Credit Accounts in Latin America Reasons for not applying for a loan (%) Reasons why a loan was denied (%) Too Does risky/ not have Have Never does enough you ever No Has loan applied not like income Does not been collateral No Lack of or credit for a to be or know denied or credit documentation instrument loan in debt collateral requirements a loan? Insufficient guarantees history requirements Country City (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) income (%) (%) (%) (%) Argentina Buenos Aires 9.7 78.5 80.0 25.7 22.7 23.8 40.0 3.3 3.3 6.7 Córdoba 14.2 71.5 66.6 31.0 24.2 15.7 65.4 7.7 3.8 0.0 Bolivia La Paz 23.4 57.4 77.9 27.6 34.7 36.0 47.3 38.5 4.4 14.3 Santa Cruz 25.2 59.2 69.4 22.7 34.7 26.7 18.8 39.1 10.9 12.5 Brazil San Pablo 21.7 61.0 73.3 16.2 7.7 23.3 40.7 14.8 13.0 0.0 Río de Janeiro 15.5 77.0 69.3 17.7 10.6 13.0 50.0 5.6 22.2 0.0 Colombia Bogotá 21.9 56.6 66.7 12.6 21.1 29.9 35.9 6.4 19.2 9.0 (continued next page) 115 Table 2.3 Household Use of Credit Accounts in Latin America (continued) 116 Reasons for not applying for a loan (%) Reasons why a loan was denied (%) Too Does risky/ not have Have Never does enough you ever No Has loan applied not like income Does not been collateral No Lack of or credit for a to be or know denied or credit documentation instrument loan in debt collateral requirements a loan? Insufficient guarantees history requirements Country City (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) income (%) (%) (%) (%) Medellín 16.0 71.0 54.4 33.3 25.6 26.9 45.7 8.7 15.2 4.3 Ecuador Quito 22.3 57.5 73.0 27.9 17.0 31.4 50.0 20.0 12.5 8.8 Guayaquil 17.1 75.5 74.5 30.2 16.3 14.4 28.6 38.1 14.3 4.8 Panama Ciudad de Panamá 12.5 65.3 68.1 24.1 17.9 20.1 31.7 17.1 24.4 7.3 Peru Lima 17.7 67.5 74.5 29.4 34.2 41.1 26.6 29.1 15.2 12.7 Arequipa 30.0 50.8 66.9 25.9 35.2 31.6 23.7 25.8 8.6 20.4 Uruguay Montevideo 30.3 39.3 74.7 25.3 35.6 26.9 33.7 21.1 28.4 7.4 Salto 28.2 46.4 75.7 26.7 25.9 19.7 62.9 16.1 9.7 9.7 Table 2.3 (continued) Reasons for not applying for a loan (%) Reasons why a loan was denied (%) Too Does risky/ not have Have Never does enough you ever No Has loan applied not like income Does not been collateral No Lack of or credit for a to be or know denied or credit documentation instrument loan in debt collateral requirements a loan? Insufficient guarantees history requirements Country City (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) income (%) (%) (%) (%) Venezuela, RB Caracas 7.5 62.6 51.4 40.6 3.5 26.5 42.4 5.1 15.3 3.4 Maracaibo 6.7 88.0 48.7 28.2 22.6 25.7 11.1 5.6 5.6 5.6 Average LAC5 20.5 62.0 70.2 24.4 24.3 25.2 42.5 13.9 13.9 7.0 Other LAC 16.4 66.5 66.1 28.8 21.0 25.8 32.8 23.3 12.5 8.1 Source: CAF 2011. 117 118 emerging issues in financial development Loan use is even less pervasive than the use of bank accounts. Only about 21 percent of households in LAC5 countries have a loan, and 62 percent have never applied for one (table 2.3). In the case of the other Latin American countries (Bolivia, Ecuador, Panama, and the República Bolivariana de Venezuela), only 16 percent of households have a loan, and 66 percent have never applied for one. Among the reasons cited for not applying for a loan, 70 percent of households in LAC5 and 66 percent in other LAC countries indicate that they consider borrowing too risky and prefer not to be in debt. Only 24 percent in LAC5 countries did not apply because of insufficient income or collateral. Among other countries in the region, 29 percent of households have not applied because of insufficient income or collateral. Hence, across Latin America, households that do not apply for loans appear to opt out of using credit services primarily because they have a strong aversion to being in debt. Among households from LAC5 countries that applied for a loan, 25 percent were rejected. In the case of the other LAC countries, 26 percent were rejected. The main reasons for loan rejections include insufficient income (42 percent for LAC5 and 33 percent for other LAC countries), lack of collateral or guarantees (14 percent for LAC5 and 23 percent for other LAC countries), lack of credit history (14 percent for LAC5 and 13 percent for other LAC countries), and lack of documentation require- ments (7 percent for LAC5 and 8 percent for other LAC countries). Overall, the household-level data reveal that the use of banking services is rather limited in Latin America. Significantly, households’ responses to questions about why they do not use services suggest that lack of income and self-exclusion play a stronger role than supply-side considerations like high fees and stringent documentation requirements. It is important to note, however, that these surveys are based on a small sample of households that reside only in urban areas. Nationally representative surveys that include rural areas might provide a different picture of the level of use and the reasons behind it. Furthermore, because these surveys were done only for Latin America, we are unable to compare their results to what might be observed in other developing countries. The Role of the Government in Promoting Financial Inclusion Analyzing the role of the government in promoting financial inclusion is difficult since it can encompass many different aspects: from document- ing whether the government has an explicit mandate to promote financial inclusion, to examining specific government programs or interventions targeted at improving financial inclusion, to evaluating the adequacy of the financial sector infrastructure and the contractual environment. Furthermore, assessing the welfare impact of government policies designed financial inclusion in latin america and the caribbean 119 to promote financial inclusion is particularly hard, since it requires isolat- ing the impact of these policies from other factors that can also affect welfare. A full evaluation of government policies is beyond the scope of this chapter. Instead, we focus exclusively on documenting the efforts and policies in place to promote financial inclusion in Latin America and on comparing them to those enacted by governments in other regions. Regulators in LAC7 countries are more likely to have a mandate to increase financial inclusion (including having a document laying out a strategy to promote access) than those in developed countries and emerg- ing economies in Eastern Europe (figure 2.17). Eighty-six percent of the LAC7 countries (six out of seven) have developed a strategy document to promote inclusion,7 while 29 percent of the countries in Eastern Europe and only one country among the G-7 (14 percent) have a similar document Figure 2.17 Governments’ de Jure Commitment to Financial Inclusion in Selected Countries and Regions, 2010 (or latest available year) 100 80 60 Percent 40 20 0 a ia na a (+ rica e ic -7 7 ie d di p er As C om ce ) hi ro G R In s LA e C on an Am D Eu m lA Ec Adv h n ut er tra So st er en Ea th C O Countries and regions Countries with a mandate to Countries with a mandate to promote promote savings SME access Countries with a mandate Countries with a strategy to promote rural access document Source: CGAP 2009, 2010. Note: DR = Dominican Republic; SME = small and medium enterprise. 120 emerging issues in financial development in place. Similarly, while more than 40 percent of LAC7 countries have an explicit mandate to promote savings and access in rural areas (Argentina, Brazil, and Peru), 29 percent of countries in Eastern Europe and 14 percent among the G-7 have adopted such policies. LAC7 countries, however, lag behind Asia in their de jure commitment to financial inclusion, given that all emerging countries in this group have a strategy document and a formal mandate to promote access to finance. Regulators in other Latin American countries are less likely than those in LAC7 countries to have adopted a mandate for financial inclusion or to have in place a strategy document to pursue that mandate. In South America, half the countries have a strategy document (Ecuador and the República Bolivariana de Venezuela) or a mandate to promote savings (Bolivia and the República Bolivariana de Venezuela). Among countries in Central America, only a third has a strategy document (Guatemala and Honduras), and only one country (El Salvador) has a mandate to promote savings. Aside from examining governments’ de jure commitment to financial inclusion, we analyze information on their de facto commitment to this goal. In particular, we consider (a) whether countries have dedicated units to promote their mandate of financial inclusion; (b) whether governments mandate that low-fee accounts be offered; and (c) whether governments use bank accounts to pay cash transfers. LAC7 countries lag behind those in Asia in having dedicated units to promote financial inclusion, but they are more likely to have basic accounts and to pay government transfers through accounts (figure 2.18). Furthermore, LAC7 countries outperform countries in Eastern Europe as well as developed economies in all three areas. Among LAC7 countries, 57 percent mandate that banks offer basic accounts, and 71 percent use bank accounts to pay govern- ment transfers. As with the indicators of de jure commitment to financial inclusion, de facto indicators in South America, and especially in Central America, rank below those for the LAC7 countries. None of the countries in Central America has dedicated units to promote access, and no country mandates low-fee accounts. Only two countries in Central America (Costa Rica and Honduras) use bank accounts to pay government transfers. Among countries in South America, only Bolivia and the República Bolivariana de Venezuela have dedicated units to promote access, and Ecuador and the República Bolivariana de Venezuela are the only countries where the government pays transfers using bank accounts. Access to financial services in many developing countries is hampered by the lack of a widespread network of banking outlets. In many rural areas, there are no bank branches or other delivery channels for finan- cial services because financial intermediaries do not find it profitable to operate in those areas. Correspondent banks and mobile branches can play a significant role in expanding the outreach of financial services. financial inclusion in latin america and the caribbean 121 Figure 2.18 Governments’ de Facto Commitment to Financial Inclusion in Selected Countries and Regions, 2010 (or latest available year) 100 80 60 Percent 40 20 0 a ia ro rn a na D al -7 7 So mie ed ic di As Eu ste C (+ ntr hi pe G er In o c ) s LA R on an C Am Ea ic Ce Ec dv h A ut a er er th Am O Countries and regions Countries with a dedicated unit to promote savings Countries with a dedicated unit to promote SME access Countries with a dedicated unit to promote rural access Countries offering low-fee accounts Countries encouraging use of accounts for government transfers Source: CGAP 2009, 2010. Note: DR = Dominican Republic; SME = small and medium enterprise. Correspondent banking arrangements are partnerships between banks and nonbanks with a significant network of outlets, such as convenience stores, post offices, drugstores, and supermarkets, to distribute finan- cial services. These arrangements allow banks to provide their services in sparsely populated areas or in regions with low economic activity at significantly lower costs than opening and maintaining a full branch. Moreover, correspondent arrangements can also achieve broader financial inclusion by allowing banks to serve some customer segments that may not be profitably served through branches due to their lower transaction values, and correspondent arrangements may also be an effective way of 122 emerging issues in financial development providing services to people who are not familiar with the use of tradi- tional banking facilities. “Mobile branches” refer to any offices of a bank at which banking busi- ness is conducted that is moved or transported to one or more predeter- mined locations on a predetermined schedule. Like correspondents, mobile branches allow banks to offer services to poor and rural areas at lower costs than those associated with operating brick-and-mortar branches. Also, because mobile branches reduce the distance between the bank and its cli- ents, they lower the costs of access to financial services for potential users. Over the past decade, bank regulators in LAC7 countries have started to allow banks to enter into correspondent banking arrangements. These arrangements have been established by financial institutions in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. Nevertheless, correspondent banking is less common in LAC7 countries than it is among economies in Asia, Eastern Europe, and other advanced non-G-7 countries (figure 2.19). Figure 2.19 Adoption of Correspondent Banking and Mobile Branches in Selected Countries and Regions, 2009 (or latest available year) 100 80 60 Percent 40 20 0 ia D a a pe a a -7 7 ut ie d (+ eric in di ic As C So om ce ro G ) er h In h s R LA C on an Eu m Am lA Ec dv n er rA tra st en e Ea th C O Countries and regions % of countries that allow % of countries that allow correspondent banking mobile branches Source: Financial Access 2009, 2010. Note: DR = Dominican Republic; SME = small and medium enterprise. financial inclusion in latin america and the caribbean 123 While 71 percent of countries in LAC7 allow for correspondent banking, 80 percent of countries in Asia and 86 percent of countries in Eastern Europe and of advanced non-G-7 economies have adopted such practices. In contrast, with the exception of China and India, where mobile branch- ing is allowed, this practice is more common among LAC7 countries than among countries in the rest of Asia, Eastern Europe, and G-7 economies. Among LAC7 countries, 86 percent allow for mobile branches, while mobile branches have been adopted by 60 percent of the countries in Asia, 57 percent of those in Eastern Europe, and 43 percent of G-7 countries. Similarly to what we found in the case of other policies, LAC7 coun- tries are way ahead of their neighbors in the region when it comes to cor- respondent banking and mobile branches. Only one-third of the countries in Central America allow for either correspondent banking (Honduras and Nicaragua) or mobile branches (Costa Rica and Honduras). Among South American countries, half allow for correspondent banking (Bolivia and Ecuador), and only Bolivia has adopted the use of mobile branches. Aside from adopting policies for promoting outreach among specific groups (like SMEs, the poor, or rural inhabitants), governments can influ- ence the extent to which financial services are provided by financial institu- tions and used by the population at large by ensuring that the appropriate financial sector infrastructure and regulations are in place. In particular, the supply and the use of credit services will be influenced by the degree to which credit information is widely available to banks and the extent to which creditors feel that their rights are protected. Based on an index measuring rules and practices affecting the coverage, scope, and accessibility of credit information available through either a public credit registry or a private credit bureau, LAC7 countries are ahead of comparator developing countries (figure 2.20).8 Furthermore, the score obtained by LAC7 countries is identical to that assigned to G-7 economies. But when it comes to the legal rights index, which measures the degree to which collateral and bankruptcy laws protect the rights of borrowers and lenders and thus facilitate lending, LAC7 countries underperform most developed and developing countries. Clearly, legal rights reform should be a priority for LAC7 governments. Comparing LAC7 countries to others in the region, we find that Central American countries have the same value on the credit information index and outrank LAC7 countries on the laws protecting the rights of credi- tors. Countries in South America other than the LAC7, however, appear to be lagging behind on the credit information index and especially on legal rights. A complete analysis of the role of the government in promoting finan- cial inclusion is beyond the scope of this chapter. In particular, we are unable to draw any conclusions about the welfare implications of differ- ent government policies. Nonetheless, the evidence presented indicates that a majority of governments in LAC7 countries have an explicit and 124 emerging issues in financial development Figure 2.20 Index of Credit Information and Legal Rights in Selected Countries and Regions, 2009 (or latest available year) 8 6 Percent 4 2 0 a a D a ia pe na -7 7 ut ie d di ic (+ eric As C So om e G ro ) hi Am s er In on anc LA R C Eu m lA Ec dv n h er A tra st er en Ea th C O Countries and regions Median strength of legal Median depth of credit rights index information index Source: Doing Business database. Note: DR = Dominican Republic. formal commitment to financial inclusion and have adopted targeted poli- cies to achieve this objective. Governments in LAC7 countries lag those in Asia but appear to be doing more than those in Eastern Europe and in developed countries. The rest of Latin America, though, lags behind LAC7 countries when it comes to adopting specific policies to promote financial inclusion. Finally, our analysis reveals that while the credit infor- mation environment in LAC7 countries compares favorably to that in other regions, governments throughout Latin America need to strengthen creditor rights. Conclusions At first glance, access to and use of banking services in Latin America appear to be low. Indicators of the numbers of bank branches, ATMs, and deposit accounts for the region are below those of developed countries and of some developing economies. However, our analysis suggests that the overall use of banking services is not lower than what is predicted based financial inclusion in latin america and the caribbean 125 on the region’s income and population density and that lack of demand appears to be an important reason behind the low use of banking services. Household surveys, for example, show that only half of households have an account. But most of those that do not have accounts are out of a job or do not have enough income to save. Distrust of banks and aversion to bank borrowing also seem to influence the extent to which firms and indi- viduals use banking services in Latin America. Financial fees could also be playing a role, since our analysis indicates that these tend to be higher in Latin America than in other regions. Across firms in Latin America, there are significant differences in the extent to which they access and use banking services, depending on the size of the enterprise. In general, access to and use of banking services are significantly lower for SMEs than for large firms. This is true across most countries within and outside of Latin America. There are also significant disparities in financial inclusion in Latin America. LAC7 countries rank ahead of their neighbors both in access to and use of banking services and in the degree to which governments in these countries promote financial inclusion. A majority of governments in LAC7 have adopted policies to promote financial inclusion such as mandating low-fee accounts, using the banking sector to pay government transfers, allowing for correspondent bank arrangements, and permitting the use of mobile branches. In general, LAC7 governments appear to be doing more than those in Eastern Europe and in developed countries. However, LAC7 countries lag behind Asia when it comes to the adoption of policies to promote financial inclusion. Areas that need more government attention include increasing SME finance, bringing down the cost of financial services, and reforming creditor rights. Outside of LAC7 countries, governments in the rest of Latin America need to step up their efforts to foster financial inclusion. Notes 1. The topics related to financial inclusion considered in the CGAP survey include consumer protection, financial literacy, regulation of microfinance, savings promotion, small and medium enterprise finance promotion, and rural finance promotion. 2. CAF (2011) offers a more comprehensive picture of financial inclusion in Latin America. 3. Household surveys that compile data on the use of financial services are surveyed in Peachey and Roe (2004) and Claessens (2006). Also, Honohan and King (2009) analyze surveys from 11 African countries and Pakistan. 4. See Barr, Kumar, and Litan (2007) for more discussion of these issues. 5. Beck, Demirgüç-Kunt, and Martinez Peria (2007) collect aggregate data on the use of financial services around the world. These data were subsequently updated and augmented by CGAP (2009, 2010) and Kendall, Mylenko, and Ponce (2010). 126 emerging issues in financial development 6. In past decades, other important distribution channels—especially bank correspondents—have rapidly expanded throughout a number of developing economies, greatly contributing to financial inclusion. We discuss such alternative channels in the sections below. 7. Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. 8. A score of 1 is assigned for each of the following six features of the public credit registry or private credit bureau (or both): (a) both positive credit information (for example, outstanding loan amounts and pattern of on-time repayments) and negative information (for example, late payments, number and amount of defaults and bankruptcies) are distributed; (b) data on both firms and individuals are distributed; (c) data from retailers and utility companies as well as financial institutions are distributed; (d) more than two years of historical data are distributed; credit registries and bureaus that erase data on defaults as soon as they are repaid obtain a score of 0 for this indicator; (e) data on loan amounts below 1 percent of income per capita are distributed; note that a credit registry or bureau must have a minimum coverage of 1 percent of the adult population to score a 1 on this indicator; and (f) by law, borrowers have the right to access their data in the largest credit registry or bureau in the economy. 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LAC’s turbulent financial history, mediocre growth, and residual weaknesses in the contractual (rather than the informational) environment all seem to have contrib- uted to the banking gap. Regarding the equity gap, the offshore trading of the larger stocks mostly explains their lower domestic trading. The low trading of the smaller stocks appears to be related to the negative spillovers of the offshore migration of the larger stocks, the regional predominance of pensions funds over mutual funds, the lingering weak- nesses in corporate governance and the contractual environment, and The authors work for the World Bank as, respectively, chief economist for Latin America and the Caribbean (adelatorre@worldbank.org), senior financial special- ist (efeijen@worldbank.org), and senior consultant (aize@worldbank.org). The chapter benefited from valuable comments by the various discussants of LAC’s financial sector flagship. 129 130 emerging issues in financial development the region’s turbulent macrofinancial history. However, more research is needed to ascertain the relative importance of these various factors and infer from the evidence a robust policy agenda. Introduction When discussing the impact of financial structure on economic growth, the literature has, at least until very recently, generally concluded that function matters more than form.1 Financial development has typically been understood as a relatively smooth and predictable march from “relationship-based finance” to “arms-length finance,” involving a systematic process of market completion driven by a gradual reduction of frictions.2 However, the global financial crisis showed that financial development has a “dark side” that can make it both nonlinear and bumpy. Thus, what may appear as financial development can in fact exacerbate market failures and thereby undermine financial sustainability. De la Torre, Feyen, and Ize (2013) propose a conceptual framework of financial development based on a typology of the frictions that hinder financial contracting. They separate these frictions into agency frictions, which restrict the scope for delegation, and collective frictions, which restrict the scope for pooling and participation. Each of these two classes of frictions is, in turn, broken down into two paradigms, depending on the completeness of information and the extent of rationality. Thus, the two agency paradigms are costly enforcement and asymmetric information; the two collective paradigms are collective action and collective cognition. Financial structure reflects economic agents’ efforts to find the path of least resistance around these four classes of frictions and paradigms. In turn, financial development (the evolution of financial structure over time) reflects the gradual erosion of frictions, quickened by innovation, returns to scale, and network effects. This framework implies that the process of financial development is broadly predictable and can be explained by the gradual grinding down— under the push of competition, financial innovation, returns to scale, and network effects—of agency or collective frictions. Based on cross- sectional development paths, the authors indeed find that public debt, banking, and capital markets develop sequentially and under increasingly convex paths. However, the dynamic development paths followed by specific country groups can deviate substantially from the cross-sectional paths. This pattern may reflect country-specific development policies, path dependence, innovation-induced leapfrogging, or cycles and crashes. These underlying regularities suggest that one can benchmark countries and compare their financial development performance using the broadest available dataset of cross-country financial indicators. This benchmarking approach can shed light on the question of where we would expect key benchmarking lac’s financial development 131 measures of a country’s (or a group of countries’) financial development to be, given not only the level of economic development (as proxied by income per capita) but also the structural factors that matter for financial development but are largely exogenous to policy, such as country size and demographic structure. The financial development gaps that emerge from this exercise then largely reflect deficits in policy and policy-shaped institutions. In this chapter, we use this benchmark methodology to assess the financial development of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), to identify the main developmental gaps, and to detect the possible factors underlying those gaps. We find that, whether we include all countries or only the largest seven, LAC is broadly on track with respect to many financial development indicators but that it lags substantially on some important ones. In particular, there is a substantial “banking gap.” Banking depth indicators (deposits and private credit) lag markedly, and the gap has worsened rather than improved over time. Bank efficiency, as measured by net interest rate margins, also lags, albeit in this case the lag has receded rather than expanded. There is also an important “equity gap.” While LAC is approximately on track on the size of its stock and bond markets, it lags dramatically on the liquidity of its domestic stock market, and the gap has been widening over time. These gaps are of concern because they coincide with some of the financial indicators that have been shown to be the best predictors of future output growth (see Beck and Levine 2005). We then explore the possible causes underlying the banking and equity gaps. On the banking gap, the largest fraction of it simply reflects LAC’s turbulent macrofinancial history. With the notable exception of Chile, large credit bubbles and crashes have affected all its largest countries in the past 20 years, leaving scars on their financial development that endure to this day. Financial sustainability is therefore essential to the ability of LAC’s financial systems to catch up. Limited demand for credit, reflecting LAC’s mediocre output growth, explains another substantial fraction of the gap. While this link between output growth and credit goes in the opposite direction from the one generally emphasized in the recent finance literature, ultimately it also puts the spotlight on productivity-enhancing credit policies. Finally, we find that contractual gaps, particularly enforcement and creditor rights, rather than informational gaps, have also contributed significantly to the banking gap. Hence, further progress in improving the judiciary and legal frameworks is called for. On the equity gap, we find that the very large offshoring of stock market trading generally explains the underperformance in the domestic trading of the larger firms. However, it does not directly explain the low domestic trading of the smaller firms since the latter are not traded abroad. The evidence suggests, however, that as the large stocks move abroad, they leave the smaller stocks in shallower domestic markets. This adverse implication for the liquidity of the domestic stock market comes indirectly 132 emerging issues in financial development through various channels, including negative spillover effects. Additional factors behind the gap in domestic stock market liquidity include the dominance of buy-and-hold pension funds over more active institutional traders such as mutual funds; weaknesses in corporate governance (particularly with respect to minority shareholder rights and protections); and shortcomings in the general enabling environment (particularly in property rights). For reasons that remain to be fully elucidated, the region’s history of macroeconomic and financial turbulence also seems to have something to do with the lack of domestic equity trading. Besides the obvious improvements in macrostability, stock market infrastructure, and the general enabling environment (which should all help but at the margin), developing a proper policy agenda remains thorny, particularly for the smaller countries and the smaller firms, given the decisive importance of scale (size of markets and of issues) and network effects in stock market development. The rest of this chapter is structured as follows. In the next two sections, we briefly present the benchmarking methodology and its main results. We next review the possible causes of the banking gap and then go on to discuss the equity gap. The final section concludes by flagging the key policy issues and challenges for the future. The Benchmarking Methodology We measure domestic financial development based on a set of depth indicators:3 bank deposits and private credit; insurance companies’ premiums (life and nonlife); assets of mutual funds and pension funds; public and private debt securities (domestic and foreign); and equity market capitalization. We complement these depth indicators with several indicators of efficiency and liquidity for which there is sufficient cross- country data, specifically banks’ net interest margin and equity market turnover. We complete this battery of financial development indicators with four indicators of bank soundness: leverage (ratio of unweighted capital to assets); capital adequacy (ratio of risk-weighted capital to assets); profitability (returns on assets); and liquidity (share of liquid assets in total bank assets). To make the data as comparable as possible across countries, we control for economic development—both the level and the square level of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita—as well as for various other factors that can be considered as policy exogenous (at least in the short term). These include demographic (population size, density, young and old dependency ratios) and country-specific characteristics (dummies for fuel exporter, offshore financial center, and transition country).4 To better capture the underlying financial development patterns, we employ quantile (median) regressions, which are less influenced by outliers. benchmarking lac’s financial development 133 Moreover, rather than undergoing a panel estimate, which would blend variations across countries and across time, we conduct our analysis in two stages. In the first stage, we take each country’s median financial indicators over the whole sample period and then conduct a cross-sectional estimate over the medians. In the second stage, we compare this cross-sectional aggregate development path with the individual dynamic development paths followed by specific regional groups of countries. Where Is LAC? Table 3.1 provides a synthetic view of LAC’s financial development relative to its benchmark.5 It compares the 1990s to the 2000s and contrasts the LAC7 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay) with the region as a whole.6 Figure 3.1 reports the performance of each of the LAC7 countries relative to their benchmarks for a subset of financial indicators. On banking indicators, LAC’s banking intermediation (both deposits and private credit) substantially lags its cross-sectional benchmarks (by over 20 percentage points of GDP in the case of the LAC7 countries), a trend that is worsening over time. On a country-by-country basis, Chile is the only LAC7 country that meets its benchmark on private credit to GDP. All other LAC7 countries are widely below their benchmarks. LAC’s private sector bank credit has undergone a steep cycle, rising in the late 1980s and early 1990s, peaking in the mid-1990s, and collapsing thereafter. Bank deposits have followed a rather similar pattern, albeit less dramatic. When credit is decomposed into its commercial, mortgage, and personal components, we can see that the gaps in commercial and mortgage lending have worsened. The gap in consumer lending, however, has substantially diminished, following the very rapid expansion of personal lending over the past decade, particularly in the LAC7 countries (table 3.2 and figure 3.2).7 The efficiency of LAC’s banking systems, measured as net interest margins, also seems to underperform in relation to its peers. However, in this case the lag has been closing rather than growing. Bank margins have narrowed to just below one percentage point in the past decade, down from over three percentage points during the previous decade. On the positive side, LAC banks largely exceed their benchmark on key prudential buffers (profitability, solvency, and liquidity). Indeed, the region currently has the highest reported prudential buffers in the world. With respect to capital market indicators, LAC’s equity market capitalization is broadly on track relative to its comparators, albeit somewhat on the low side (particularly for the LAC7 countries). On a country-by-country basis, Chile clearly stands out again, followed by Brazil. In contrast, the liquidity of LAC’s equity markets, as proxied by Table 3.1 Benchmark Model for LAC’s Financial Development Indicators, 1990–99 and 2000–08 134 Median actual values (%) Workhorse median residuals Rest of LAC LAC7 Rest of LAC LAC7 2000–08 2000–08 1990–99 2000–08 1990–99 2000–08 Bank private credit 36.0 24.2 −3.9*** −0.8** −13.6*** −22.5*** Bank claims on domestic financial sector 1.1 2.6 −1.3*** −0.4*** −1.1 *** −0.2 Bank credit to government 3.7 10.0 −5.2*** −5.3*** −4.3*** −1.1 Bank foreign claims 8.6 2.5 −0.5 2.0 −4.4*** −5.7*** Bank domestic deposits 37.4 25.4 −10.9*** −4.0*** −13.6*** −20.8*** Bank nondeposit funding 18.4 24.3 −3.1 −1.4 −5.1* −6.5** Net interest margin 4.9 4.8 0.0 1.0*** 3.3*** 0.9*** Noninterest income/total income 25.6 33.5 −9.4*** −4.2*** 3.9 1.9** Total bank financial assets/GDP (excluding reserves) 55.5 65.5 −17.6*** −0.7 −16.7*** −19.5*** Life insurance premiums 0.3 0.7 −0.3*** −0.3*** −0.7*** −0.4*** Nonlife insurance premiums 1.3 1.1 −0.1 0.1*** −0.2*** −0.3*** Pension fund assets 7.5 11.7 −4.3*** −0.7* Table 3.1 Benchmark Model for LAC’s Financial Development Indicators, 1990–99 and 2000–08 (continued) Median actual values (%) Workhorse median residuals Rest of LAC LAC7 Rest of LAC LAC7 2000–08 2000–08 1990–99 2000–08 1990–99 2000–08 Mutual fund assets 1.1 5.9 −9.8** −5.9 Insurance company assets 2.1 4.0 −2.9*** −7.7*** Stock market turnover 2.3 12.6 −3.7 −10.6*** −18.4*** −28.8*** Stock market capitalization 15.7 33.6 −8.5 −7.7*** −7.7 −0.6 Domestic private debt securities 0.6 9.0 −10.1 −12.3 −1.6*** −3.0* Domestic public debt securities 28.5 19.7 −17.6** 0.7 −21.3*** −12.2*** Bank foreign claims 17.2 24.5 −2.5** −3.4 −4.0 0.0* Foreign private debt securities 1.8 4.0 −1.6* −2.4** −1.9** −2.5*** Foreign public debt securities 9.6 8.9 −3.0 1.3** 0.9 2.6*** Gross portfolio equity assets 0.2 3.1 −4.9*** −0.6*** −0.1 2.4 Gross portfolio debt assets 3.7 1.3 −1.0 1.2 0.1 0.0** Gross portfolio equity liabilities 0.4 5.4 −2.3* −2.2*** 1.2** 1.8 Gross portfolio debt liabilities 9.2 12.2 ¡16.1*** 2.7 −4.9 3.2** Capital/total assets 10.1 11.5 −0.2** 0.5** 0.6*** 2.3*** 135 (continued next page) Table 3.1 Benchmark Model for LAC’s Financial Development Indicators, 1990–99 and 2000–08 (continued) 136 Median actual values (%) Workhorse median residuals Rest of LAC LAC7 Rest of LAC LAC7 2000–08 2000–08 1990–99 2000–08 1990–99 2000–08 Liquid assets/total assets 3.6 12.5 −4.8*** −5.9*** 2.4*** 5.0*** Regulatory capital/RWA 14.1 14.4 0.1 2.0*** Bank capital/assets 10.0 9.8 0.7 2.2*** Return on assets 1.5 1.3 −0.4 0.1 0.4*** 0.5** Source: de la Torre, Feyen, and Ize 2011. Note: This table shows the results of a benchmark model for LAC’s financial development indicators. It presents the 2000−08 median for all LAC countries and the median LAC residual for the 1990−99 and 2000–08 periods, respectively, derived from the workhorse median regression model of the financial indicator of interest on GDP per capita (squared), population size and density, fuel exporter dummy, age dependency ratio, offshore financial center dummy, transition country dummy, and year fixed effects. The asterisks correspond to the level of significance of Wilcoxon rank sum tests for distributional differences of the residuals between LAC and the rest of the world. ***, **, and * represent significance at 1 percent, 5 percent, and 10 percent, respectively. LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean; GDP = gross domestic product; RWA = risk-weighted asset. benchmarking lac’s financial development 137 Figure 3.1 LAC7 Financial Indicators against Benchmark a. Private credit as % of GDP 120 100 80 % of GDP 60 40 20 0 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru Uruguay Country b. Life insurance premiums as % of GDP 2.5 2 1.5 % of GDP 1 0.5 0 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru Uruguay Country (continued next page) 138 emerging issues in financial development Figure 3.1 (continued) c. Pension fund assets as % of GDP 70 60 50 % of GDP 40 30 20 10 0 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru Uruguay Country d. Mutual fund assets as % of GDP 45 40 35 30 % of GDP 25 20 15 10 5 0 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru Uruguay Country (continued next page) benchmarking lac’s financial development 139 Figure 3.1 (continued) e. Stock market capitalization as % of GDP 120 100 80 % of GDP 60 40 20 0 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru Uruguay Country f. Stock market turnover ratio (%) 90 80 70 60 % of GDP 50 40 30 20 10 0 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru Uruguay Country (continued next page) 140 emerging issues in financial development Figure 3.1 (continued) g. Outstanding domestic private debt securities as % of GDP 25 20 15 % of GDP 10 5 0 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru Uruguay Country h. Outstanding domestic public debt securities as % of GDP 50 45 40 35 30 % of GDP 25 20 15 10 5 0 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru Uruguay Country Source: de la Torre, Feyen, and Ize 2011. Note: This figure shows financial indicators for individual LAC7 countries against their respective benchmark, represented by the horizontal bars. GDP = gross national product. benchmarking lac’s financial development 141 Table 3.2 LAC Credit Gap by Type of Credit, 1996 and 2007 Expected Actual Gap Gap/expected Year: 1996 Credit to the private sector as % of GDP Commercial 24.7 19.4 5.2 21.1 Mortgage 8.4 5.4 3.0 35.7 Consumer 8.8 3.4 5.4 61.4 Total 41.8 28.2 13.6 32.5 Year: 2007 Credit to the private sector as % of GDP Commercial 22.9 14.5 8.4 36.7 Mortgage 12.6 3.1 9.5 75.4 Consumer 11.2 6.5 4.7 42.0 Total 46.7 24.2 22.5 48.2 Source: de la Torre, Feyen, and Ize 2011. Note: This table shows the results of a benchmark model for LAC7 banking credit indicators. GDP = gross domestic product. turnover, is lagging dramatically, and this lag has been steadily worsening. Except for Uruguay (which just meets its benchmark), all LAC7 countries fall short of their benchmarks. Bond markets, both domestic and foreign private market capitalization, are a bit on the low side, although not exceedingly so. Moreover, on a country-by-country basis, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico all meet or exceed their benchmarks. In addition, LAC’s public debt capitalization lags its benchmark substantially for domestic markets but exceeds it slightly for foreign markets, which suggests that LAC still has a long way to go in developing its local currency public debt markets and limiting its reliance on dollar-denominated foreign debt. This being said, on a country-by- country basis, both Brazil and Colombia exceed their domestic debt benchmarks. Finally, on indicators related to institutional investors, LAC pension funds seem to be on track, with Chile having by far the most developed pension fund system in the region. Moreover, LAC7 mutual funds appear to have largely caught up with their benchmark, albeit with huge cross-country disparities. While Brazil’s mutual funds industry exceeds its benchmark by an ample margin, and Chile and Mexico are 142 emerging issues in financial development Figure 3.2 Average Composition of Private Credit by Type of Credit in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, 1996–2009 80 70 60 50 Percent 40 30 20 10 0 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 Year Personal Mortgage Commercial Source: Didier and Schmukler 2014. close to their benchmarks, other LAC countries are far below their peers. Regarding the insurance industry, insurance premiums (both life and nonlife) lag significantly in both LAC and LAC7. Chile is again the regional star performer, largely because of its well-developed annuities industry. What Explains LAC’s Banking Gap? In principle, the banking gap could reflect just a measurement problem, particularly if foreign financing largely offsets the lack of domestic bank financing. Because of data limitations, it is not straightforward to rule this out. Nonetheless, balance of payments data provide some clues. They suggest that the fluctuations in private sector domestic credit for four of the LAC7 countries were generally matched by opposite (albeit much dampened) changes in gross debt liabilities abroad (figure 3.3). However, while the correlation is significantly negative (close to minus 40 percent), the two series are clearly orders of magnitude apart. Thus, while there is evidently some substitution, it is quite limited. At the same time, foreign private debt securities issued by LAC7 corporations benchmarking lac’s financial development 143 abroad (that is, nonbank credit to corporations) do not outperform the benchmark (see table 3.1). Therefore, one can safely conclude that while cross-border credit (from markets or intermediaries) may have substituted for domestic bank credit at the margin, it clearly did not do so on average. Alternatively, the lack of bank credit could reflect a lack of demand for lendable funds rather than a lack of supply. Or perhaps the low volume of commercial credit reflects a lack of bankable projects. LAC’s lackluster growth could, in turn, be a reflection of a lack of investment rather than a lack of savings. And a lack of investment could reflect low productivity rather than a high cost of funds. Indeed, a sizable literature emphasizes LAC’s structural bottlenecks in productivity and growth, which derive from institutional weaknesses as well as overvalued real exchange rates.8 To test for such demand effects, we add to the benchmarking model average growth of past output as an additional control and find that it indeed explains a sizable part of LAC’s current banking underperformance (table 3.3). Figure 3.3 Offshore and Onshore Credit to the Private Sector in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, 1994–2009 20 10 Percent 0 –10 –20 94 5 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 9 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 Year Debt liabilities flows/GDP Private credit/GDP (yearly increases) Source: International Financial Statistics. Note: GDP = gross domestic product. Table 3.3 LAC Credit Gap: A Decomposition by Source 144 Dependent variable: Bank private credit (% of GDP) Source (1) (2) (3) (4) Enforcement contract index −4.047* −5.318** (−1.864) (−2.358) Legal rights index 1.662 1.671 (−1.547) (−1.385) Credit information index −0.526 (−0.379) Property rights index 0.235 0.069 (−1.301) (−0.335) Annualized average sample GDP growth 7.450*** 5.59** (2.935) (−2.433) Credit crash dummy (% of period) −86.92*** −77.69** (−2.816) (−2.042) Workhorse controls Yes Yes Yes Yes Table 3.3 LAC Credit Gap: A Decomposition by Source (continued) Dependent variable: Bank private credit (% of GDP) Source (1) (2) (3) (4) Explained credit gap based on LAC7 median values Contract enforcement index 1.51 1.98 Legal rights index 0.64 0.65 Credit information index 0.47 Property rights index 1.15 0.34 Annualized average sample GDP growth 3.70 2.80 Credit crash dummy (% of time) 7.02 6.27 Total explained gap 3.77 3.70 7.02 12.04 Gap 20.9 20.1 18.9 15.7 Percent of total gap explained 18% 18% 37% 77% Sources: de la Torre, Feyen, and Ize 2011; Heritage Foundation; Doing Business. Note: This table shows regressions of bank credit to the private sector against different explanatory variables. The contract enforcement index is the principal component of the following indicators from Doing Business: contract enforcement costs, number of days to enforce a contract (in logs), and number of procedures to enforce a contract. The legal rights index and the credit information index are from Doing Business. The property rights index is from the Heritage Foundation. Robust t−statistics are shown in parentheses. *,**, and *** denote significance at the 10 percent, 5 percent, and 1 percent levels. LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean; GDP = gross domestic product. 145 146 emerging issues in financial development An additional check on whether the lag in bank credit is supply based or demand based consists in looking at real interest rates. If the low credit primarily reflected a lack of demand for credit (rather than a lack of supply of funds), real interest rates should be low. On the bank lending side, this is clearly not the case as real lending rates in LAC have exceeded U.S. rates by close to 800 basis points, on average, over the past decade (figure 3.4). However, on the deposit side, real interest rates have exceeded U.S. rates by only 100–200 basis points over the past decade. Moreover, the deposit rate differential has always been below the country risk differential, as measured by the Emerging Markets Bond Index premiums. Overall, this does not seem to suggest a burning scarcity of funds.9 The obvious follow-up question, therefore, is, What is behind the fat bank margins? One possible answer is lack of competition. However, Figure 3.4 Real Lending Rate, Real Deposit Rate, and Emerging Market Bond Index: Differentials between LAC7 and the United States, Five-Year Moving Averages, 1984–2010 15 10 5 Percent 0 –5 –10 –15 –20 4 5 Jun–86 Mar–87 7 8 Jun–89 Mar–90 0 1 Jun–92 Mar–93 3 4 Jun–95 Mar–96 6 7 Jun–98 Mar–99 9 0 Jun–01 Mar–02 2 3 Jun–04 Mar–05 5 6 Jun–07 Mar–08 8 9 Jun–10 Dec–8 Sep–8 Dec–8 Sep–8 Dec–9 Sep–9 Dec–9 Sep–9 Dec–9 Sep–9 Dec–9 Sep–0 Dec–0 Sep–0 Dec–0 Sep–0 Dec–0 Sep–0 Year Lend. LAC-US 5y EMBI spread 5y Dep. LAC - US 5y Source: IFS and JPMorgan. Note: This figure shows five-year moving average differentials between LAC7 and the United States of the real lending rate, real deposit rate, and JP Morgan’s EMBI+. GDP = gross domestic product; EMBI = Emerging Market Bond Index. benchmarking lac’s financial development 147 recent studies of bank competition, based on an analysis of Panzer-Rosse or the Lerner index (Gelos 2009; Anzoategui, Martínez Pería, and Rocha 2010) do not support this hypothesis.10 In fact, LAC appears to outperform (rather than underperform) both of these indexes. Alternatively, the high bank overheads (which account for most of the high margins) could reflect a problem of insufficient scale. Indeed, including the ratio of private credit to GDP (a proxy for scale) as an additional control in the benchmark regressions explains about two-thirds of the current excess margin (table 3.4). Hence, the evidence suggests, perhaps not surprisingly, that the high margins and the limited scale of intermediation are largely mirror images of each other. This finding, in turn, prompts us to explore the reasons for LAC’s underperformance, given the size of its banking intermediation. Adding a basic set of enabling-environment indicators—contract enforcement costs, creditor rights, property rights, and credit information—to the basic benchmark regressions for private bank credit shows that some of them (enforcement costs and creditor rights) have a significant impact. Since LAC significantly underperforms on both of these indicators, the two variables together explain only a modest fraction—about 2.6 percentage points of GDP, or 17 percent of the credit gap (see table 3.3). Although that number is small, measurement noise is likely to bias this result downward. Its share of the total explained component of the gap (nearly one-fourth) probably provides a more accurate sense of the magnitude of its importance. To examine the roots of the banking gap a bit further, we also check whether the low amount of private credit can be at least partly explained by two additional variables that are often mentioned as important for the region: the degree of bank competition and the size of the informal sector. Regarding bank competition, one would expect the depth of intermediation to be positively related to the extent of competition, as banks should compete more aggressively for market share the more competition there is. However, one would expect the depth of intermediation to be negatively related to informality, as it naturally becomes more difficult for banks to lend as informality grows. Bank competition can be measured in a variety of ways, including the assets of the three or five largest commercial banks as a share of total commercial banking assets, the H-statistic, the Lerner index, or the Boone indicator. Informality is measured as the share of informal employment in total nonagricultural employment. Table 3.5, which inserts these two additional controls into various regressions of private credit, shows that although the signs are generally (albeit not always) correct (competition generally expands credit; informality always reduces it), neither of the two new controls is significant in any definition of the variable or specification. Nonetheless, to have a better feel for the possible magnitude of the effects, we use the regression coefficients for either variable—in the case 148 emerging issues in financial development Table 3.4 Bank Net Interest Margins, Bank Overheads, and Private Credit Net interest Net interest margins margins Overheads Overheads Private credit (% of −0.0261*** −0.0236*** −0.0247*** −0.0229*** GDP) (−8.280) (−6.314) (−9.833) (−8.390) Contract −0.247* −0.072 enforcement index (−2.224) (−0.724) Legal rights index 0.0538 0.0653 (−0.976) (−1.395) Credit information −0.0161 −0.0153 index (−0.214) (−0.276) Property rights index 0.00697 −0.00324 (−0.883) (−0.467) Constant 4.669 15.90** 5.172 17.92*** (1.087) (2.426) (1.519) (2.956) No. of observations 1,280 459 1,280 459 2 R 0.36 0.49 0.35 0.48 Sources: de la Torre, Feyen, and Ize 2011; Heritage Foundation property rights index; Doing Business. Note: This table shows full sample regressions of bank net interest margins and overheads against different explanatory variables. The contract enforcement index is the principal component of the following indicators from Doing Business: contract enforcement costs, number of days to enforce a contract (in logs), and number of procedures to enforce a contract. The legal rights index and the credit information index are from Doing Business. The property rights index is from the Heritage Foun- dation. Robust t-statistics are shown in parentheses. *,**, and *** denote significant at the 10 percent, 5 percent, and 1 percent levels. GDP = gross domestic product. of competition, we use the H-statistic in equation (4) of table 3.5 because it is the most significant; in the case of informality, we pick equation (6) because it has the same set of basic controls as equation (4)—to compute by how much private credit would increase in the median LAC7 country if (a) the degree of bank competition were increased from 0.751 (its current median value) to 1 (perfect competition); and (b) informality were reduced from 50.6 (its current median value) to zero (that is, if it were eliminated). Table 3.6 shows the results. It indicates that LAC7 private credit would rise by 8 percent in one case (full competition) and 23 percent in the other Table 3.5 Determinants of Private Credit Dependent variable: Bank private credit (% of GDP) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) Enforcement contract index 0.271 Legal rights index 1.928 Credit information index Property rights index 0.378 (0.893) Assets held by top 5 banks −0.133 (% of total) (−0.491) Assets held by top 3 banks −0.188 (% of total) (−0.879) Boone indicator −1.188 (−0.137) H-statistic 33.32 (1.603) Lerner index 62.31 (1.303) 149 (continued next page) Table 3.5 Determinants of Private Credit (continued) 150 Dependent variable: Bank private credit (% of GDP) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) Annualized average sample 9.395*** 9.503*** 8.494*** 8.205** 7.662** 7.004 4.19 GDP growth (−2.859) (−3.121) (−2.915) (−2.171) (−2.093) (0.943) (0.614) Informality index −0.456 −0.477 0.012 (−0.969) (−1.265) (0.028) Credit crash dummy (% of −1.133 −1.412 period) (−1.130) (−1.096) Constant 240 256.5* 187.1 295.2 108.1 224 388.5 214.5 (1.593) (1.874) (1.489) (1.402) (0.585) (0.799) (1.656) (0.84) No. of observations 106 117 118 73 93 67 77 67 Source: International Financial Statistics. Note: This table shows regressions of bank private credit as percentage of GDP against different explanatory variables. t-statistics are shown in parentheses. *,**, and *** denote significance at the 10 percent, 5 percent, and 1 percent levels. GDP = gross domestic product. benchmarking lac’s financial development 151 (zero informality). This finding suggests that while competition seems to have only a limited effect, the impact of reducing informality would be more substantial. In either case, however, the low levels of significance suggest caution. More research is clearly needed before these results can be taken at face value. A last potential explanatory factor is LAC’s turbulent macrofinancial history. Indeed, LAC was the region where crises were both the most frequent and the most encompassing, featuring a full range and mix of currency, banking, and debt crises (table 3.7). A bird’s-eye view of events is provided by figure 3.5, which contrasts the dynamics of real interest rates in LAC with those of real bank credit since the late 1970s, based on medians for Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru.11 There were three clear credit cycles: one during the early 1980s, one lasting most of the 1990s (with an interruption in 1995 due to Mexico’s “tequila crisis”), and one that is still ongoing after a brief interruption due to the global financial crisis.12 In view of this eventful background, a key question is whether the comparatively low levels of credit in the region today are a lasting reflection of the sharp collapses of credit during the 1980s and 1990s. At the same time, debt monetizations are likely to have undermined the credibility of local currencies, thereby boosting domestic financial dollarization. Hence, unless countries allowed dollarization to take hold—despite its drawbacks—one would also expect a lasting impact on the capacity of banking systems to intermediate. To test for these effects, a worldwide credit crash variable—reflecting mild, strong, and severe annual drops in the ratio of private credit to GDP— is included in the basic benchmark regressions of private bank credit. To test for induced dollarization effects, a deposit dollarization variable is added, as well as a variable that interacts inflation with dollarization.13 The credit crash variable is indeed very significant, explaining as much as a third of the current credit gap in LAC (see table 3.3). Inflation and its interaction with financial dollarization are also jointly significant (table 3.8). Table 3.6 LAC Credit Gap: Effect of Changes in Competition and Informality Competition Informality LAC7 private credit predicted value 55.31 38.37 LAC7 adjusted value 59.90 47.22 Differences (%) 8.3 23.1 Source: Calculations based on data from de la Torre, Feyen, and Ize 2011. Note: The adjusted value is the private credit increase in the median LAC7 countries if (a) the degree of bank competition is increased to 1 (perfect competition) and (b) informality is reduced to zero (no informality). LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean. 152 Table 3.7 Number of Crises by Type in Selected Countries and Regions, 1970–2007 External debt Domestic debt Any type of crises crises Banking crises Currency crises crisis Asia (5) 5 0 14 17 27 China 0 0 3 2 5 Eastern Europe (7) 6 2 13 15 28 G-7 (7) 0 0 16 1 17 India 0 0 1 1 2 Other advanced economies (7) 0 0 9 10 18 LAC 47 13 53 72 149 Caribbean (2) 5 0 3 7 14 Central America (+DR) (6) 11 2 13 14 33 LAC7 (7) 16 7 21 36 63 Offshore centers in LAC (3) 2 1 1 0 3 Other South America (4) 13 3 15 15 36 Source: Broner et al. 2013. Note: This table shows the number of different types of crises taking place across several regions from 1970 to 2007. Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of countries covered. benchmarking lac’s financial development 153 Figure 3.5 Real Credit to the Private Sector and Compounded Real Deposit Rate Index, Medians in Six LAC Countries, 1978–2009 400 350 300 250 Percent 200 150 100 50 0 D c–80 D c–81 D c–82 D c–83 D c–84 D c–85 D c–86 D c–87 D c–88 D c–99 D c–90 D c–91 D c–92 D c–93 D c–94 D c–95 D c–96 D c–97 D c–98 D c–09 D c–00 ec 1 D c–02 D c–03 ec 4 D c–05 D c–06 D c–07 ec 8 9 Jan–78 D n–89 D c–80 D –0 D –0 –0 Jan–7 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Ja Year LAC real credit Index rate Note: This figure shows the evolution since the late 1970s of medians for the index of the compounded real deposit rate and the index of real bank credit in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean. Hence, the evidence appears to lead to the following set of conclusions: (a) the banking crises of the past have taken a very significant toll on LAC’s financial intermediation, and the region is still paying for the sins of its abrupt cycles;14 (b) inflation has had a significant negative impact, not because it weakened balance sheets, but because it made financial contracting more difficult, particularly at the longer time horizons required for housing finance; and (c) the latter effect was at least partly offset, for the countries that allowed it, by financial dollarization. Remarkably, the credit crash variable also helps explain banks’ high interest margins as well as their comfortable financial soundness indicators (profitability, capital, and liquidity) (table 3.9). This suggests that banks that underwent crises were able to raise their margins (thereby raising their profitability), reflecting a forward reassessment of risks as well as perhaps a need to recoup the losses incurred during the crisis. At the same time, they became more prudent in managing risk, which led to less lending and higher prudential buffers. While this result is not too surprising, it is rather remarkable that these effects still linger a decade or two after the crises. Table 3.8 Private Credit, Financial Dollarization, and Inflation, 2005–08 Dependent variable: Average private credit to GDP in 2005–08 154 (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Dollarization: Period mean −17.73* 49.93* (−1.770) (−1.851) Dollarization: Latest 55.77** 62.59* (−2.002) (−1.774) Log period inflation: Period −6.380*** −15.16*** −15.27*** −17.81*** mean (−2.952) (−3.572) (−3.690) (−2.988) Dollarization (mean)*log 23.23** inflation (mean) (-2.249) Dollarization (last)* log 24.84** 29.45* inflation (mean) (−2.261) (−1.893) Constant 176.6** 167.2*** 118.4 103.1 133.6 (−2.321) (−2.653) (−1.557) (−1.347) (−1.234) No. of observations 128 162 128 128 86 2 R 0.68 0.73 0.72 0.72 0.73 Source: de la Torre, Feyen, and Ize 2011. Note: This table shows full sample regressions of bank credit to the private sector against variables capturing the level of dollarization and infla- tion between 2005 and 2008. Robust t-statistics are shown in parentheses. *,**, and *** denote significance at the 10 percent, 5 percent, and 1 percent levels. LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean; GDP = gross do- mestic product; ROA = return on assets. Table 3.9 Banks, Interest Margins, Financial Soundness, Enabling Environment Indicators, and Credit History in LAC: Growth and Crashes Net interest Capital/total Liquid assets/ margin ROA assets total assets Regulatory capital Enforcement contract index -0.155 0.0438 0.353 2.366 0.247 (−0.713) (−0.42) (−0.857) (−0.726) (−1.326) Legal rights index 0.156 0.051 −0.192 0.787 0.312*** (−1.318) (−0.931) (−0.903) (−0.496) (−3.131) Property rights index 0.0246 0.00367 0.0659* −0.0129 0.0347** (−1.192) (−0.387) (−1.769) (−0.0502) (−2.481) Annualized average sample GDP −0.0971 0.00887 −0.0202 0.156 −1.054*** growth (−0.471) (−0.108) (−0.0642) (−0.0504) (−8.303) Credit crash dummy (% of period) 20.83** 5.068** 17.52* 13.39 27.90*** (−4.332) (−2.266) (−1.897) (−0.183) (−7.092) Constant 7.914 9.730** −19.96 187.9 12.26 (−0.958) (−2.504) (−1.170) (−1.408) (−1.611) No. of observations 88 88 98 98 78 Pseudo R2 0.48 0.32 0.21 0.19 0.27 Sources: de la Torre, Feyen, and Ize 2011; Doing Business; Heritage Foundation. Note: This table shows full sample regressions of banking indicators against different explanatory variables. The contract enforcement index is the principal component of the following indicators from Doing Business: contract enforcement costs, number of days to enforce a contract (in logs), and number of procedures to enforce a contract. The legal rights index and the credit information index are from Doing Business. The prop- 155 erty rights index is from the Heritage Foundation. Robust t-statistics are shown in parentheses. *,**, and *** denote significance at the 10 percent, 5 percent, and 1 percent levels. LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean; GDP = gross do- mestic product; ROA = return on assets. 156 emerging issues in financial development What Explains LAC’s Equity Gap? To better understand the equity gap documented above, we begin by analyzing whether the lack of liquidity (low turnover) in the domestic equity markets can be due to the offshoring (migration abroad) of stock market activity. Figure 3.6 shows the “total turnover” for the stocks of (large) firms with depository receipts in the New York Stock Exchange— obtained as the sum of onshore and offshore trading divided by their market capitalization reported for the onshore market.15 It also shows the domestic turnover for these same (large) firms and the turnover for all firms in the domestic market. The striking result is that once offshore trading is taken into account, the turnover of the large LAC firms nearly triples. Indeed, for the large LAC firms, turnover abroad dominates turnover at home, much more than in other regions. The effect is so strong that for the large LAC firms with depository receipt programs there does not seem to be an equity gap. Thus, offshoring does appear to be largely responsible for the atypically low domestic trading for these LAC firms. However, the story for the smaller LAC firms, which do not have access to foreign stock markets, is remarkably different. Their domestic equity turnover is extremely low compared to that in other regions. Moreover, it has remained broadly stable even as the total turnover of the large firms has increased substantially (figure 3.7). A further check on the importance of foreign trading for LAC can be obtained by introducing the share of foreign trading as an additional control in the benchmark regressions of turnover (table 3.10). Once this new variable is introduced, the LAC dummy ceases to be significant. This provides additional support to the view that much of the apparent LAC equity gap can be explained by the region’s extraordinary reliance on offshore trading. The predominance of pension funds among institutional investors could also contribute to LAC’s equity gap, as pension funds do not engage in active trading but instead mostly buy and hold.16 Indeed, current regulations tend to reinforce the preference for buy-and-hold investment strategies, which can be detrimental to market liquidity (see Gill, Packard, and Yermo 2004). More generally, institutional investors tend to invest in larger and more liquid firms, hence limiting the supply of funds to smaller and less liquid ones.17 To determine the impact of pension funds, we regress the data with GDP per capita and population and plot the residuals along with the fitted regression line (figure 3.8). Remarkably, the regression line is flat for funds but clearly upward sloping for mutual funds and insurance companies. This finding is consistent with the fact that the growth of pension funds has a strong policy component, whereas the growth of other institutional investors occurs endogenously with economic and financial development. benchmarking lac’s financial development 157 Figure 3.6 Average Turnover Ratio in Selected Countries and Regions, 2000–10 2 1.6 Turnover ratio 1.2 0.8 0.4 0 Asia China Eastern G-7 India LAC7 Other Europe Advanced Economies Countries and regions Total turnover: Domestic turnover: firms with DR programs firms with DR programs Domestic turnover: all firms Source: Didier and Schmukler 2012. Note: This figure characterizes domestic and foreign equity markets. It shows the average between 2000 and 2010 of the turnover ratios in domestic markets for firms with depository receipt programs as well as the total turnover ratios, which consider domestic and foreign trading activity. It also shows the aggregate turnover ratio in domestic markets for all listed firms. All depository receipts identified in the Depository Receipt Directory of the Bank of New York, with trading data reported in Bloomberg, are considered in this figure. DR = depository receipt. However, if one interprets the causality in the other direction, it could also suggest that, in contrast with other institutional investors such as mutual funds, pension funds do not contribute much to stock market liquidity because they mostly buy and hold. In this interpretation, the fact that most LAC countries are bunched up under the regression line for mutual funds but are more evenly distributed around the line for pension funds would suggest that the low equity turnover could have something to do with the predominance of buy-and-hold pension funds in the region and the relative underdevelopment of mutual funds (which are presumably more active traders). Weak corporate governance practices are also a commonly cited explanation for the low development of stock markets. Following the 158 emerging issues in financial development Figure 3.7 Domestic and International Value Traded as a Percent of Domestic Market Capitalization in Selected Countries and Regions, 2000–10 2.5 2 Turnover ratio 1.5 1 0.5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 –0 –1 –0 –1 –0 –1 –0 –1 –0 –1 –0 –1 –0 –1 00 06 00 06 00 06 00 06 00 06 00 06 00 06 Asia China Eastern G-7 India LAC7 Other Europe Advanced Economies Countries and regions International turnover Domestic turnover Source: Didier and Schmukler 2012. Note: This figure characterizes domestic and foreign equity markets between 2000 and 2010. It shows, for firms with depository receipt programs, the average ratio of domestic and foreign value traded as a share of their market capitalization, that is, domestic and foreign turnover ratios. All depository receipts identified in the Depository Receipt Directory of the Bank of New York, with trading data reported in Bloomberg, are considered in this figure. same procedure as that described above for pension funds, the plotting of the controlled residuals of the anti-self-dealing index and the anti- director-rights index—two widely used corporate governance indicators— suggests a possible link between low turnover and weak governance (figure 3.9). The regression line for the anti-self-dealing indicator is clearly upward, which suggests that it is more closely connected with market development. At the same time, most LAC countries are bunched up under the regression line, which confirms LAC’s strong underperformance on this indicator and indicates that it might have something to do with LAC’s equity gap.18 Given the difficulties in measuring corporate governance and the multidimensionality of this concept, however, some caution is warranted.19 Table 3.10 Trading Activity in LAC Dependent variable: Value traded over GDP (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) LAC7 dummy −50.54*** −72.62* −26.13 −101.4** −75.71** (−2.756) (−1.766) (−0.559) (−2.501) (−2.458) Foreign value traded as % of total value −114.9* traded (−1.827) Foreign market capitalization as % of 411.5** total market capitalization (2.143) Amount raised by top 5 equity issues as % −31.85 of total amount raised (−0.604) Constant −40.89 194.5 54.84 −417.4 407.9 (−0.186) (0.181) (0.0535) (−0.402) (0.557) Workhorse controls Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No. of observations 86 34 34 34 47 R2 0.613 0.435 0.509 0.532 0.444 Source: de la Torre, Feyen, and Ize 2011. Note: This table shows regressions of bank credit to the private sector against different explanatory variables and a dummy for LAC7 countries. LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean. Robust t-statistics are in shown in parentheses. *,**, and *** denote significance at the 10 percent, 5 percent, and 1 percent levels. 159 160 emerging issues in financial development Figure 3.8 Domestic Turnover and Institutional Investors a. Pension funds 1.2 1.0 0.8 as % of GDP (residuals) Pension fund assets 0.6 0.4 0.2 y = 0.0002x–0.0101 0.0 –0.2 –0.4 –0.6 0 50 100 150 200 250 Domestic turnover (residuals) b. Mutual funds 1.5 Mutual fund assets as % of GDP (residuals) 1 0.5 0 –0.5 y = 0.0063x–1.4292 –1 –1.5 –2 –2.5 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 Domestic turnover (residuals) (continued next page) benchmarking lac’s financial development 161 Figure 3.8 (continued) c. Insurance companies 1.5 1 Insurance companies assets as % of GDP (residuals) 0.5 0 –0.5 –1 y = 0.0063x–1.4292 –1.5 –2 –2.5 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 Domestic turnover (residuals) LAC countries Rest of the world Source: Based on Didier and Schmukler 2014, 2012. Note: This figure shows scatterplots of the 2005–09 average residuals of institutional investors’ assets relative to GDP against the average residuals of the domestic turnover ratio. Figure 3.8a shows the assets of pension funds as a percentage of GDP. Figure 3.8b shows the assets of mutual funds as a percentage of GDP. Figure 3.8c shows the assets of insurance companies as a percentage of GDP. The turnover ratio is defined as the total value traded per year in domestic markets over domestic market capitalization. Residuals are obtained from ordinary least-squares regressions of the variables on GDP per capita and population. LAC countries are shown in dark color. LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean; GDP = gross domestic product. Finally, LAC’s low growth, turbulent macro- and financial history, and remaining weaknesses in its enabling environment might also contribute to explaining its low turnover in domestic equity markets. To check for such effects, we add to the benchmarking regressions proxy measures of economic prospects (average GDP growth for the past three decades) and macrofinancial turbulence (credit crash dummy, as defined above). We also add some measures of the quality of the enabling environment (contract enforcement, property rights, and credit information). The results (table 3.11) are tentative as they do not fully survive robustness tests, but they do hint in some specific directions while underscoring the need for more research. In particular, financial crashes 162 emerging issues in financial development Figure 3.9 Domestic Turnover and Corporate Governance in Selected Countries and Regions a. Anti-self-dealing and antidirector indexes 1.0 0.8 0.6 Average 0.4 0.2 0.0 na (6 n ) ) a ) (7 d (5 (7 (7 pe er di ie nce hi ) ro ast In ) ia -7 7 C C As om va G Eu E LA s on Ad Ec r e th O Countries and regions Anti-self-dealing index Antidirector index b. Domestic turnover and ex ante private control of self-dealing index 0.8 Ex ante private control of self-dealing 0.6 0.4 index (residuals) 0.2 0.0 –150 –100 –50 0 50 100 150 200 -0.2 –0.4 y =–0.0003x–0.0051 –0.6 Domestic turnover (residuals) (continued next page) benchmarking lac’s financial development 163 Figure 3.9 (continued) c. Domestic turnover and anti-director-rights index 3 2 Anti-director-rights index (residuals) 1 0 –150 –100 –50 0 50 100 150 200 –1 –2 –3 y = 0.0035x–0.0204 –4 Domestic turnover (residuals) Source: Calculations based on Djankov et al. 2008. Note: This figure characterizes the relation between corporate governance and liquidity in domestic equity markets. Figure 3.9a shows the anti-self- dealing and antidirector indexes. The anti-self-dealing index intends to capture the strength of minority shareholder protection against practices where management or controlling shareholders use their power to divert corporate wealth to themselves. The antidirector index intends to capture the stance of corporate law toward shareholder protection. Higher levels of the indexes imply stronger shareholder protection. Figures 3.9b and figure 3.9c show scatterplots of the residuals of two indexes of corporate governance against the residuals of the domestic turnover ratio for 2003. LAC countries are reported in darker colors. The turnover ratio is defined as the total value traded per year in domestic markets over domestic market capitalization. Residuals are obtained from ordinary least-squares regressions of the variables on GDP per capita and population. and low growth are significantly associated with the low turnover in domestic stock markets when introduced separately. Interestingly, however, they lose their significance when the LAC7 dummy is added. This could suggest that while financial crashes and low growth affect many other countries outside the LAC region, they have had special consequences in the case of LAC, so much so that they have become tightly interwoven with LAC specificities (the LAC7 dummy). Our econometric test for the Table 3.11 LAC’s Domestic Equity Turnover and Enabling-Environment Indicators 164 Dependent variable: Stock market turnover (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) LAC7 dummy −35.83*** −27.02** −32.12** (−4.837) (−2.505) (−2.635) Credit crash dummy (% of period) −134.0* −109.2 −125.7*** −72.19 (−1.902) (−1.524) (−3.049) (−1.042) Annualized average sample GDP 6.315** 3.164 0.440 growth (2.424) (1.385) (0.225) Contract enforcement index −4.298* −1.477 (−1.970) (−0.495) Credit information index 4.452*** 2.091 (2.738) (0.976) Property rights index 0.592*** 0.510** (3.211) (2.153) Constant 306.9*** 359.3** 353.9*** 296.0*** 445.7*** 319.3** (4.010) (2.390) (2.786) (2.730) (4.343) (2.348) (continued next page) Table 3.11 LAC’s Domestic Equity Turnover and Enabling-Environment Indicators (continued) Dependent variable: Stock market turnover (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) Workhorse controls Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No. of observations 107 107 86 86 103 84 2 Pseudo R 0.46 0.44 0.49 0.54 0.47 0.55 Sources: de la Torre, Feyen, and Ize 2011; Heritage Foundation; Doing Business. Note: This table shows regressions of domestic equity turnover ratio aga contract (in logs), and number of procedures to enforce a contract. The credit information index is from Doing Business. The property rights index is from the Heritage Foundation. Robust t-statistics are shown in parentheses. *,**, and *** denote significance at the 10 percent, 5 percent, and 1 percent levels. LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean; GDP = gross do- mestic product. 165 166 emerging issues in financial development enabling-environment indicators also suggests that contract enforcement costs, property rights, and information are also part of the story of the low turnover in LAC’s domestic stock markets (these variables retain statistical significance even when introduced together with the also significant financial crashes variable). However, like the financial crashes and growth variables, the enabling-environment indicators also lose significance once the LAC7 dummy is added. Again, this might suggest that the effects of low growth, financial crashes, and enabling-environment weaknesses are wrapped up tightly in the region’s history and are crucial in shaping LAC’s current state of financial development. Policy Directions The results in this chapter point toward a number of possible policy directions worth exploring. We briefly review them, starting with the banking gap. Altogether, the evidence suggests that the domestic banking gap, although partly offset by alternative channels of debt finance, particularly cross-border channels, is nonetheless real enough. LAC banks lend less and charge more than they should. One can safely assume that any remaining gap should affect SMEs more than large corporations, since the latter are able to switch sources of finance (whether at home or abroad) rather easily, depending on cost and availability. Even here, however, as shown in chapter 2, the evidence on whether LAC’s SMEs have a particularly hard time getting financing is not particularly conclusive. Clearly, assessing in further depth the impact on SME financing of LAC’s banking gap is therefore an area for priority research. Of particular value would be an analysis of credit information that provides more insight into lending to marginal borrowers. More research is also needed to ascertain the possible impact of the lack of credit on firms’ leverage, activity, and investment, based on available enterprise-level financial accounts data. Similarly, in the case of mortgages, the gap also looks real. Yet not enough is known about the extent to which other forms of housing finance (including from public provident funds) may be offsetting the lack of bank credit. The largest fraction of the banking gap simply reflects LAC’s turbulent history. Even though much time has passed, LAC has not yet fully recovered from the repeated credit crashes of its past. Past turbulence also accounts for banks’ still-high interest margins, high capital and liquidity buffers, and high profitability. The main policy lesson here is that financial sustainability is the name of the game. The long-run costs of financial crashes are too large to be taken lightly. The spotlight is thus squarely on macroprudential policy and good systemic prudential oversight. benchmarking lac’s financial development 167 The historically low demand for credit appears to explain another substantial portion of the gap. To the extent that output growth is affected by other (nonfinancial) policies, such as macropolicy or supply-side structural policies for enhancing productivity and competitiveness, the possible policy responses go beyond the financial sector. However, one can also argue that financial policies focused on overcoming the limited marginal productivity of capital by lowering the cost of finance could spur growth of output (and, hence, ultimately strengthen financial depth); that is, policy might increase the number of bankable projects by increasing their profitability. Finally, a significant share of the banking gap also has to do with remaining weaknesses in the enabling environment. Much progress has been made in resolving informational frictions. Indeed, LAC is ahead of many emerging markets in the development of credit bureaus, for example. But the region still has a long way to go in addressing contractual frictions, particularly the enforcement of contracts and the preservation of creditor rights. While there are some indications that LAC’s banking systems may also face efficiency issues associated with insufficient competition, the available evidence is inconclusive. Should the issue be confirmed through further research, a policy agenda to address it would need to be developed. Our first clear conclusion on LAC’s equity gap is that offshoring accounts for much of the region’s sluggish turnover in its domestic equity markets. That gap probably does not matter much for the larger firms: whether their stock is traded in Mexico City or in New York is largely immaterial; and, when it matters, being traded in New York may actually be good because it yields reputational benefits. However, the domestic trading gap does matter for the smaller firms that cannot rely on international markets and are thus constrained by the lack of access to equity financing at home. Even if these firms’ access to debt financing at home were adequate (which is probably not the case in view of the banking gap), that would not substitute for the lack of access to capital through equity, as the latter plays a unique role in long-term business expansion. Two interrelated but clearly distinct questions spring up in this regard: Why is the offshoring of equity turnover so large in the case of LAC? and Why has offshoring seemingly had such a depressing impact on the liquidity of domestic equity markets? Levine and Schmukler (2007) shed light on the second question, providing some evidence on the channels through which the adverse effects of offshoring on domestic trading may work.20 Yet there are no solid answers to the first question. LAC’s history of low economic growth (to the extent that it is associated with uninspiring expected returns to investment) and, perhaps more important, its history of financial crashes may have something to do with the low 168 emerging issues in financial development trading. However, it is more difficult to understand why they might have caused the high offshoring. A second conclusion is that the preponderance of pension funds over other institutional investors—as well as the remaining weaknesses in corporate governance, contract enforcement, and property rights—may have all contributed to some extent to LAC’s turnover gap in domestic equity markets. Yet caution is also needed in interpreting the evidence. The policy-induced growth in pension funds, for example, may have displaced mutual funds by giving investors an alternative savings channel. However, pension funds may also help mutual funds develop by investing part of their portfolios in them. Moreover, as shown in the companion chapter by Raddatz in this same volume, it is not clear that the asset management behavior of LAC’s mutual funds differs much from that of pension funds. As for the possible impact on the equity market of LAC’s weaknesses in corporate governance, one might take the view that this is of first-order importance considering the experience of Brazil’s Novo Mercado, which appears to have been instigated by the tightening of governance norms. Yet, much of the success of the Novo Mercado may have more to do with Brazil’s comparative size advantage than with governance reforms. Indeed, an alternative for the smaller countries might be to follow a “lighter governance” path that is more suited to the smaller firms, while accepting the trade-off of having a reduced scope for minority shareholders (who would be more willing to own stock under lighter governance arrangements). Such a light version might be characterized by more benign accounting and public disclosure standards, more private equity placements and over-the-counter activity, less reliance on centralized local exchanges, and concentrated (rather than atomized) stock ownership. To overcome the constraints imposed by the small size of the markets, many have recommended the cross-border integration of LAC’s stock markets. Indeed, Chile, Colombia, and Peru have recently reached an agreement of this sort, which focuses on integrating such functions as listing, order routing, and execution. Yet, despite the potential benefits of integrating securities markets in terms of scale and network effects, these attempts have thus far tended to fail (Lee 1999).21 Moreover, as discussed in de la Torre, Gozzi, and Schmukler (2007), there remain some fundamental doubts about whether regional integration of stock exchanges would be better than deeper and better integration with the developed stock markets.22 In any event, ascertaining the policy path for stock market development in LAC, especially for the smaller countries, is fiendishly difficult, much more than is commonly recognized. Of course, there are enabling-environment reforms (in property rights and corporate governance frameworks, for example) that everyone agrees should benchmarking lac’s financial development 169 help. And even for the small countries, there are many improvements in stock market infrastructure that can also help, including those aimed at reducing fragmentation in issuance and trading, enhancing securities clearance and settlement arrangements, organizing securities lending and borrowing facilities, improving valuation methods, promoting contract standardization, and upgrading financial reporting. However, such reforms would at best correct for only a modest part of the low turnover in the domestic equity markets. Thus, the larger questions remain. Should the smaller countries simply “throw in the towel,” forget about developing a local stock market, and accept the conclusion that equity funding is available primarily for their large resident corporations and mainly through listing on the international stock markets? Or should they persevere in developing local markets for the sake of their smaller firms? The only thing one can know for certain is that LAC will need to look beyond the simplest conventional wisdom: macrostability and compliance with international standards might help, but they will not suffice. Notes 1. See Demirgüç-Kunt and Levine (2001) or Allen and Gale (2000). More recent papers (such as Demirgüç-Kunt, Feyen, and Levine 2011) have come closer to recognizing that banks and markets play different roles at different stages of economic development, that is, that form might also matter. 2. An earlier strand of thought viewed financial development as driven by the steady mitigation of asymmetric information failures such as moral hazard and adverse selection (see, for instance, Akerlof 1970; Spence 1973; Stiglitz and Weiss 1981). A more recent strand has emphasized enforcement costs and lack of collat- eral leading to problems of limited pledgeability (see Holmstrom and Tirole 1998; Geanakoplos 2009). Rajan and Zingales (2003) present a more complete narrative rooted in the same basic threads. 3. The data are from FinStats 2009, a worldwide financial database put together by the World Bank, which covers 40 key financial indicators for the period 1980–2008 (coverage quality varies between variables). The data come from a vari- ety of sources including IFS, BIS, WDI, S&P, Bankscope, Axco, and national sources. 4. The controls were selected iteratively, based on individual statistical signifi- cance and collective explanatory power. 5. This section touches upon a number of issues already covered in chapter 1 of this book. However, this overlap is necessary for motivating the subsequent analysis and establishing a common ground with other financial development indicators introduced in this chapter. In addition, the benchmarking methodol- ogy developed in this chapter provides an alternative perspective on the same issues. 6. In de la Torre, Feyen, and Ize (2011), we assess LAC’s progress over time and compare its performance to that of the G-7, other high-income countries, a subset of Eastern European countries, and a subset of Asian countries. To obtain a better feel for the evolution of the financial indicators relative to their benchmark, we plot regional median indicators against the underlying time and cross-sectional development paths. 170 emerging issues in financial development 7. Due to the limited coverage of the data currently available on the break- down of private credit, we were unable to perform meaningful controls. Hence, we present only the raw data. 8. See, for example, McMillan and Rodrik (2011) for a discussion emphasiz- ing the low growth of output and employment in LAC’s higher-productivity sectors. 9. Recent work on emerging sovereign bond rates (Broner, Lorenzoni, and Schmukler 2013) shows that in normal times LAC faces a fairly elastic supply of foreign funds. Except at the longer end of the maturity range in times of world mar- ket turbulence, bond rates are basically determined by the world appetite for risk, with LAC behaving like other regions. The gradual shrinking of country premiums and their increased dependence on global fluctuations in risk appetite (rather than idiosyncratic factors) tell a similar story. 10. The H (Panzar-Rosse) statistic contrasts the elasticity of a firm’s revenue with that of its input costs (under perfect competition, an increase in input prices should lead to a one-for-one increase in output prices and, hence, revenue). The Lerner index calculates the disparity between prices and marginal costs (a measure of the markup). The Boone indicator relates performance (measured in terms of profits) to efficiency (measured as marginal costs). 11. We include the compounded real (deposit) interest rate in the figure because it provides some indication of “autonomous” changes in credit that are simply driven by the compounding of interest rates. 12. The first cycle started with a period of easy money and low real U.S. rates. It ended brutally in 1982 with U.S. interest rates rising sharply in the wake of Volcker’s stabilization efforts and LAC’s rates going in the opposite direction, as the region’s inflation rates went through the roof. The second cycle started with LAC’s mostly failed exchange-rate-based stabilizations that resulted in high real interest rates, strong currency appreciations, and large capital inflows; that cycle ended with twin crises in most countries. The third cycle started in the early years of the millennium under the dual impetuses of domestic macrostabilization and the strongly stimulative world environment resulting from China’s accelerated growth and large U.S. deficits. 13. These links between financial depth, inflation, and dollarization were first explored in de Nicolo, Honohan, and Ize (2005). 14. Interestingly, when adding a simple credit volatility variable (the year-to- year variance of private to GDP credit) as an additional control in the benchmark regressions of credit, it is not significant. Hence, it is credit crashes—but not volatil- ity per se—that leave a substantial and lasting imprint on financial development. 15. The domestic market capitalization of these firms includes all the stocks issued at home even if they are completely traded abroad (through depository receipts). 16. Raddatz and Schmukler (2013) show that Chilean pension funds trade infrequently. On average, a pension fund trades only 13 percent of its assets, and the monthly changes in asset positions correspond to just 4 percent of the initial total value of the assets. This contrasts sharply with the 88 percent mean turnover ratio found in Kacperczyk, Sialm, and Zheng (2008) for a sample of 2,543 actively managed U.S. equity mutual funds between 1984 and 2003. 17. See, for example, Kang and Stulz (1997), Dahlquist and Robertsson (2001), Edison and Warnock (2004), Didier, Rigobon, and Schmukler (2011), and Didier (2011), among many others. 18. Of the individual countries, Argentina, Mexico, and Uruguay have the weakest corporate governance indicators. Brazil is an interesting case, as its anti- director index takes the maximum possible value while its self-dealing index is one of the lowest in the region. This might be a result of the recent developments in the Brazilian stock market whereby firms can adhere to stricter corporate gov- ernance rules by choosing where to list. While this might have boosted the value benchmarking lac’s financial development 171 of the antidirector index, which measures the extent of legal protection, it might not have had an immediate effect on actual self-dealing practices. 19. In unreported results on two more corporate governance indicators (ex ante private control of the self-dealing and public enforcement index), LAC7 seems to be overperforming, to the point of being even slightly ahead of the G-7 countries. 20. Offshoring can shift the trading of firms that issue abroad out of the domes- tic market—the “liquidity migration” effect. In addition, it can lead to a drop in the trading and liquidity of the stocks of the remaining domestic firms. This, in turn, can happen through two effects. The first effect (“negative spillovers”) is linked with the increase in cost per trade at home due to fixed costs. The second effect (“domestic trade diversion”) follows from the fact that the internationaliza- tion of stock issuance and trading induces improvements in reputation, disclosure standards, analyst coverage, and the shareholder base that induce investors to shift their attention from firms trading onshore to firms trading offshore. 21. Many reasons have been given for this lack of success, including legal and regulatory differences across countries, the adverse effects of different national currencies in the absence of sufficiently developed currency derivatives markets, informational barriers across markets (including differences in accounting and disclosure standards), and larger than expected difficulties in integrating market infrastructures. 22. While it is true that regional financial integration may reduce trading and issuance costs because of economies of scale, it seems doubtful that such cost reduc- tions would be greater than those that could be achieved by global integration. Similarly, while it is true that neighboring investors may have informational advan- tages on regional firms compared to more remote foreign investors, it is not clear that such advantages would be better exercised by trading in a regional market than in a global one. 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In this chapter, we address two particularly important aspects of financial globalization: (a) financial diversification, that is, the cross-country holdings of foreign assets and liabilities; and (b) financial offshoring, that is, the use of international markets by firms and governments. The evidence suggests that financial The authors work for the World Bank in, respectively, the LCRCE unit (tdi- dier@worldbank.org) and the DECRG unit (sschmukler@worldbank.org). The authors received very helpful comments from Augusto de la Torre, Cesar Calderon, Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Alain Ize, Eduardo Levy Yeyati, Guillermo Perry, Claudio Raddatz, Rodrigo Valdes, and participants at presentations held at the Global Development Network Annual Meeting (Bogotá), the NIPFP-DEA Workshop (Delhi), and the World Bank (Washington, DC). They are grateful to Francisco Ceballos, Luciano Cohan, Juan Cuattromo, Gustavo Meza, Paula Pedro, Virginia Poggio, Andres Schneider, Patricio Valenzuela, Luis Fernando Vieira, and Gabriel Zelpo for outstanding research assistance at different stages of this project. For help in gathering unique data, the authors wish to thank Mario Bergara (Central Bank of Uruguay), Samuel Fox (Fitch Ratings), Fabio Malacrida (Central Bank of Uruguay), Carlos Serrano (National Banking Commission, Mexico), and the ADR team from the Bank of New York, among many others. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the World Bank. 175 176 emerging issues in financial development globalization in LAC has continued to increase over the past decade according to widely used de facto measures, namely, the stock of for- eign assets and liabilities and capital flows by domestic and foreign agents (gross flows). However, LAC corporations have not used foreign markets much as a source of new financing. Still, compared to the use of domestic capital markets, the issuance of bonds and equity abroad has been gaining momentum. This trend has been accompanied by increased liquidity abroad in equity markets. In contrast, bond financ- ing by the public sector has been shifting to local markets. These trends in the use of foreign markets are closely related to the develop- ments in domestic markets. Moreover, LAC countries have become net creditors in debt assets and net debtors in equity assets over time, a position that has been particularly beneficial during crises. Introduction There has been much talk about financial globalization over the past decades. Less is known, however, about whether the trend of rapid globalization that took place during the 1990s for most of the emerging world, and in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) in particular, has continued during the 2000s and whether the nature of financial globalization has changed over time. To the extent that they can help us understand the development of domestic financial systems, a deeper analysis of these trends is important. Financial development cannot be viewed in isolation. When an economy is open to financial flows, financial transactions can take place domestically and internationally. Moreover, the fact that foreigners can invest in a domestic market is an important aspect for any analysis of the availability of funds for investment in a local economy. This chapter explores the interplay between a country’s financial development and its participation in financial globalization. One aspect of globalization is related to financial diversification—that is, the availability of foreign funds that might help develop domestic markets as they seek international risk diversification. That aspect, however, needs to be understood in the context of domestic investors who are also investing abroad. This increased financing from foreigners can have many beneficial effects as risk is shared across borders, but it may also mean that shocks to foreign investors (reflected in the volatility of capital flows) can be imported into the local economy. The second aspect of financial globalization is related to financial offshoring: that is, the use of foreign markets or foreign jurisdictions to conduct financial transactions by firms and governments.1 In a world where assets can be traded at home and abroad, one needs to consider the financial globalization 177 activity abroad to grasp the full extent of financial development. We thus investigate how developments in domestic agents’ use of foreign markets may be associated with the trends in the use of domestic markets. Our analysis can also shed light on the extent to which foreign markets are substitutes for or complements to domestic markets. For instance, foreign markets are substitutes when domestic financing activity actually migrates abroad. To the extent that such migration occurs, financial development is negatively correlated with financial globalization, for example, with firms’ raising capital and trading their assets in international markets. Domestic and international markets may also be complements when they offer different financing choices. Foreign bond markets, for example, might typically be used for assets denominated in foreign currency, while domestic markets might offer financing in both domestic and foreign currency. According to widely used de facto measures, such as the stock of foreign assets and liabilities and capital flows by domestic and foreign agents (or gross flows), financial globalization in LAC appears to have continued to increase over the past decade. Interestingly, developed countries have typically experienced a greater expansion of flows as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) and a significantly larger increase in the stock of foreign assets and liabilities than have emerging countries. This increased financial globalization has been a two-way process, with increased participation of both foreigners in local markets and residents in foreign markets. The recent patterns of financial globalization described in this chapter reaffirm the notion put forward in chapter 1 that financial systems remain relatively less developed in emerging countries than in advanced economies not because of insufficient available funds: significant evidence shows that foreigners are entering domestic markets and that domestic residents are saving more abroad by hoarding international reserves. The increased participation of foreigners in local capital markets around the world has largely been as investors, as they typically do not seek financing in these markets. Emerging market residents, in contrast, use foreign markets as investors as well as borrowers, tapping a much wider range of instruments. Still, over the past decade, LAC corporations have not generally expanded their use of foreign markets. Capital-raising activity in foreign markets has been relatively small and stable over time, in contrast to the growing depth of financial markets around the world. It has also been highly concentrated in a few firms. In other words, the increased globalization that has taken place over the past 20 years has tightened links across markets, with increased gross capital flows, but it has not been accompanied by an increased use of foreign capital markets as a financing source. Furthermore, positive developments in local bond markets have been matched in maturity and currency by developments in foreign markets. For instance, bond maturities in LAC have been longer in the 2000s than in the 1990s for both the private and the public sectors in emerging 178 emerging issues in financial development countries. Moreover, some firms as well as governments have been able to place local currency bond issues abroad, although bonds typically remain almost exclusively denominated in foreign currency. Although emerging countries have not used foreign markets much as a source of new financing, their issuance of bonds and equity abroad has been gaining ground over the use of domestic capital markets, particularly among LAC7 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay). Furthermore, this apparent migration of equity financing to foreign markets has been accompanied by increased liquidity abroad for many LAC countries, possibly suggesting a shift of equity trading to foreign markets. In contrast, bond financing by the public sector has been shifting to local markets. These trends in the use of foreign markets by the public and private sectors of LAC countries in fact reinforce the developments in domestic markets. As argued in chapters 1 and 3 in this volume, financial markets in emerging countries have typically been expanding, although not as fast as expected. A possible explanation for the underdevelopment of local markets for the financing of the private sector could be the use of financial services abroad, as agents might get better financing terms in foreign markets. We also find that emerging economies have typically become net creditors in debt assets and net debtors in equity assets. Such a composition of foreign assets and liabilities is particularly beneficial in times of turbulence, as balance sheet effects work in their favor. For example, if their currencies depreciate, the local currency value of their external assets would increase, while that of their debt liabilities would shrink. In addition, as observed during the global financial crisis of 2008–09, with the collapse in economic growth and in equity markets, the local currency value of emerging economies’ equity liabilities can also contract. Hence, another interesting feature of the process of financial globalization over the past decade is the safer international integration of many emerging countries arising from the changing structure of their external assets and liabilities. The rest of the chapter is organized as follows. The next section documents and gives a broad overview on where LAC stands on commonly used and simple measures of financial globalization. The following section evaluates the relative size of domestic and foreign capital markets for financing the public and private sectors. The chapter then analyzes whether and how the nature of financial integration has changed over time and concludes with a discussion of some issues for further research. Extent of Financial Globalization As documented in Lane and Milesi-Ferretti (2007) and others, de facto financial integration measures suggest increasing globalization. For instance, both developed and emerging countries, especially the former financial globalization 179 during the 2000s, have been expanding their ties to financial systems around the world as seen by increased foreign assets and foreign liabilities, a standard measure of the extent of financial integration (figure 4.1a). The extent of financial integration is much greater in developed countries than in emerging markets. Foreign assets and liabilities represented about 300 percent of GDP in developed countries in the 2000s, whereas they were less than half that in emerging markets, at around 130 percent in emerging Asian, Eastern European, and LAC7 countries. Foreign direct investment (FDI) and bank flows capture the bulk of foreign liabilities, particularly in emerging markets, where they are more than 70 percent of total foreign liabilities in Asian, Eastern European, and LAC7 countries. In contrast, foreign assets are concentrated in international reserves for a number of emerging economies. For example, reserves accounted for 52 percent of the total foreign assets of emerging Asian countries and about 37 percent in Eastern Europe in the 2000s. For LAC7 countries, reserves accounted for 24 percent over the same period (figure 4.2). In developed economies, direct investments and other investments typically represent about 50 percent of the total foreign assets and liabilities. This expansion of the stock of foreign assets and liabilities might reflect not only increased gross capital flows but also valuation effects; as many have argued, capital gains and losses on outstanding holdings of foreign assets and liabilities can be sizable.2 Just as important, capital inflows by foreign residents and capital outflows by domestic residents have been on the rise, particularly in developed countries, where not only are foreign residents investing more in local markets but also domestic residents are expanding their use of foreign markets (see figure 4.1b). This increase in gross capital flows over the past decade points toward an increased globalization of world financial markets with greater participation of residents from developed and emerging countries as investors in global markets. In fact, the developments of domestic markets documented in chapter 1 in this book might have benefited from the increased participation of foreign investors in domestic markets. A broader base of investors may lead to increased liquidity and larger analyst coverage of corporations, which would improve the quality and amount of information available to market participants. Furthermore, the scrutiny of foreign investors and analysts may increase transparency and promote the adoption of better corporate governance practices, thus reducing agency problems (Stulz 1999; Errunza 2001). However, foreigners invest mostly in emerging markets, but they typically do not raise capital in these local markets. For instance, foreign firms issuing either equity or bonds in local markets in LAC countries account for less than 3 percent of total firms raising new capital in these markets and less than 2 percent of the total amount raised during the 2000s. Yet, in comparison to the 1990s, foreign firms have been seeking more financing in emerging markets. One possibility behind these patterns 180 Figure 4.1 Financial Integration in Selected Countries and Regions, 1980–2007 a. Stock of foreign assets and liabilities 350 300 250 200 150 % of GDP 100 50 0 ) d ) ) n a (7 (7 (5 er ) na di -7 ce 7) 7 ia st (3 hi In G C v an ies( LAC As Ea ope Ad om r er n Eu th Eco O Countries and regions 1980–89 1990–99 2000–07 (continued next page) Figure 4.1 (continued) b. Gross capital flows 30 25 20 14 13 8 15 % of GDP 10 7 10 6 5 4 4 13 3 4 3 13 12 3 5 1 6 3 7 1 7 4 5 1 4 5 5 5 4 5 4 4 2 2 1 1 2 0 1 1980–89 1990–99 2000–09 1980–89 1990–99 2000–09 1980–89 1990–99 2000–09 1980–89 1990–99 2000–09 1980–89 1990–99 2000–09 1980–89 1990–99 2000–09 1980–89 1990–99 2000–09 Asia (5) China Eastern G-7 (7) India LAC7 (7) Other Europe Advanced (3) Economies (7) Countries and regions Flows by foreign residents Flows by domestic residents Source: Lane and Milesi-Ferretti 2007; IMF’s BOP. Note: Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. GDP = gross domestic product. 181 182 emerging issues in financial development is that within emerging countries, firms look for financing alternatives in more developed—that is, relatively deeper and more liquid—markets. Emerging market residents, however, not only invest but also borrow in foreign markets. In fact, they use a wider range of instruments than foreign investors locally. However, the participation of residents from emerging countries in foreign markets as borrowers is somewhat limited, particularly for the private sector. Figure 4.3 presents data on borrowing in foreign markets, including syndicated loans, bond issues, and equity issues. As the figure shows, emerging countries, including LAC7, are much less active than developed countries in raising capital overseas.3 For example, new capital raised through syndicated loans abroad represented more than 2 percent of GDP on average during the 2000s for a number of emerging markets, and so did new bond issues in foreign markets for many countries. Not surprisingly, bond issues in foreign markets from corporations in emerging countries are typically heavily skewed toward government financing, with the private sector playing a much smaller role. New capital raising through equity Figure 4.2 Composition of Foreign Liabilities and Assets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1990–2007 a. Composition of foreign liabilities 100 5 7 8 7 7 17 12 16 15 90 18 13 7 20 10 15 30 18 % of total foreign liabilities 80 10 11 25 70 28 27 6 28 60 38 56 57 37 42 50 42 77 40 46 37 48 41 28 30 20 41 38 32 29 26 26 21 23 10 15 18 14 8 0 1990–99 2000–07 1990–99 2000–07 1990–99 2000–07 1990–99 2000–07 1990–99 2000–07 1990–99 2000–07 Asia (5) Eastern G-7 (7) India LAC7 (7) Other Europe Advanced (7) Economies (7) Countries and regions FDI Other investment Portfolio debt Portfolio equity (continued next page) financial globalization 183 Figure 4.2 (continued) b. Composition of foreign assets 100 7 90 13 16 24 17 80 37 35 20 % of total foreign assets 45 16 12 52 11 70 21 58 64 8 78 4 8 21 60 6 8 50 5 47 35 40 38 25 39 44 30 25 47 46 18 20 38 13 27 26 10 20 22 16 15 16 6 9 7 13 0 1990–99 2000–07 1990–99 2000–07 1990–99 2000–07 1990–99 2000–07 1990–99 2000–07 1990–99 2000–07 Asia (5) Eastern G-7 (7) India LAC7 (7) Other Europe (7) Advanced Economies (7) Countries and regions Direct investment abroad Other investment Portfolio debt Portfolio equity International reserves Source: Lane and Milesi-Ferretti 2007. Note: Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. GDP = gross domestic product. issues is also relatively limited, representing on average 0.2 percent of GDP per year across emerging economies. The figure also shows a mixed picture of capital-raising activity in foreign markets over the past decade. While syndicated loans expanded between 1990–99 and 2000–08, international equity financing declined in many emerging regions, as did international bond financing, largely because of lower activity in the private sector. In contrast, in Eastern Europe and India, both public and private sector international bond issuance expanded, as did international equity issues. Financing through Capital Markets: Domestic and Foreign Markets In this section, we explore the extent to which foreign markets are substitutes or complements to domestic financial markets in emerging countries. As shown above, the private sector of emerging countries has a relatively small 184 emerging issues in financial development Figure 4.3 New Capital-Raising Issues in Foreign Markets in Selected Countries, Regions, and Economies, 1991–2008 a. Syndicated loans 6 5 4 % of GDP 3 2 1 0 ) a ) (7 d pe rn (7 (7 na ) di ie nce (5 ro ste ) ) In hi -7 7 (7 ia C om va C G Eu Ea s As LA on d A Ec er th O Countries and regions 1991–1999 2000–08 b. Bond issues by the private and public sectors 9.0 8.0 7.0 6.0 % of GDP 5.0 3.3 6.3 4.0 5.7 3.0 2.1 2.3 2.0 0.9 1.2 3.3 1.0 1.3 1.5 1.6 1.4 1.4 1.1 0.9 1.1 1.0 0.0 1991–99 2000–08 1991–99 2000–08 1991–99 2000–08 1991–99 2000–08 1991–99 2000–08 1991–99 2000–08 1991–99 2000–08 Asia (5) China Eastern G-7 (7) India LAC7 (7) Other Europe (7) Advanced Economies (7) Countries and regions Public sector Private sector (continued next page) financial globalization 185 Figure 4.3 (continued) c. Equity issues 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 % of GDP 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 ) ) ) na a (7 (5 (7 n (7 d (7 di pe er ie nce hi 7 In ia -7 ) ) ro ast C C As G om va LA s Eu E on d A Ec er th O Countries, regions, and economies 1991–99 2000–08 Source: SDC Platinum. Note: Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. GDP = gross domestic product. and stable capital-raising activity abroad. Nevertheless, in comparison to new issues in domestic markets, issuance of bonds and equity abroad has been increasing for many countries. Insofar as foreign markets have substituted for domestic financial markets—perhaps because local firms get better financing terms there—then one may expect to see such adverse outcomes as segmentation, where larger firms have access to foreign capital markets while smaller firms are limited to local financing sources. The substitution of foreign for domestic financial markets may reduce not only the liquidity of the remaining firms in local markets but also their ability to raise capital, thereby jeopardizing the sustainability of domestic capital markets. In sharp contrast, bond financing by the public sector has shifted to local sources, consistent with the deeper domestic markets documented in chapter 1 in this volume. We now explore in more detail these shifts in the use of domestic and foreign markets across emerging and developed countries. Despite the small volume of financing activity taking place abroad, emerging economies, and especially LAC7 countries, still rely more on foreign markets than developed countries do; for example, about 30 percent 186 emerging issues in financial development of outstanding government bonds were issued abroad during the 2000s for LAC7 and Eastern European countries, compared to only 6 percent by G-7 countries (figure 4.4a). Notably, the share of international bonds issued by the public sector in emerging countries has declined, suggesting that public financing is shifting toward domestic markets. Such a decrease is particularly sharp among LAC7 countries and those in emerging Asia, a trend consistent with the significant expansions of local markets for government bonds and, at the same time, with a reduction in foreign indebtedness of many of these countries (see chapter 1). For the private sector, however, the share of bond financing in foreign markets typically increased for both developed and emerging countries. For example, issues abroad represented more than 50 percent of total outstanding bonds during the 2000s for Eastern European countries and India as well as “other advanced economies” (figure 4.4b). For LAC7 countries, the share is one of the smallest among emerging regions, and it has remained relatively stable at around 35 percent over the past 20 years, suggesting that domestic markets are an important source of funding for Figure 4.4 Relative Size of Foreign Capital Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1990–2009 a. Outstanding bonds in foreign markets by the public sector as % of total outstanding bonds in domestic and foreign markets 45 40 % of total public bonds 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 ) na ) ) s d pe rn (5 (7 (6 ie ce hi ro ste ) ) ia -7 7 (6 (6 C om an C As G Eu Ea LA on dv Ec r A e th O Countries and regions 1990–99 2000–09 (continued next page) financial globalization 187 Figure 4.4 (continued) b. Outstanding bonds in foreign markets by the private sector as % of total outstanding bonds in domestic and foreign markets 70 60 % of total private bonds 50 40 30 20 10 0 ) na ) a ) s d pe rn (5 (7 (6 di ie ce hi ro ste ) ) In ia -7 7 (5 (3 C om an C As G Eu Ea LA on dv Ec r A e th O Countries and regions 1990–99 2000–09 c. Amount raised in foreign equity markets as % of total amount raised through equity issues in domestic and foreign markets 60 50 % of total amount raised 40 30 20 10 0 ) na ) a ) (7 d (5 n (5 (7 (6 di ie nce pe er hi ) ) In ro ast ia -7 7 C C om va As G s LA Eu E on Ad Ec er th O Countries and regions 1991–99 2000–08 Source: Bank for International Settlement (BIS); SDC Platinum. Note: International debt securities reported in 4.4a and 4.4b are defined as those that have not been issued by residents in domestic currency and targeted at resident investors. Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. 188 emerging issues in financial development the private sector. Nevertheless, domestic bond markets are relatively small and concentrated in a few firms in LAC7 countries, indicating that bond financing is a restricted option for the private sector more broadly in these countries. With regard to equity financing, LAC7 countries and China are exceptions to the global trends. In developed as well as emerging countries, equity financing has shifted mostly toward domestic markets, which increasingly account for the bulk of new capital-raising activity. For instance, only 30 percent of the issues from Eastern European companies and 6 percent of the issues from companies in emerging Asian countries were in foreign markets during the 2000s. Equity financing abroad in LAC7 countries and China has been gaining ground against domestic markets: almost 50 percent of their equity issues took place abroad over the past 10 years, up from 26 percent and 18 percent, respectively, during the 1990s (figure 4.4c). This migration of equity financing to foreign markets for LAC7 countries has been accompanied by increased liquidity abroad, suggesting the possibility that equity trading has shifted to foreign markets. The issuance of equity abroad by many emerging economies has usually taken the form of cross-listings through depositary receipts (DRs), which are particularly useful for analyzing this potential shift of liquidity in stock markets. DRs represent ownership of stocks traded in local markets, but they also trade on the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, and the London Stock Exchange, among others. Firm-level trading activity for LAC7 countries shows that liquidity has been shifting to foreign markets. In fact, it represents the bulk of the trading for a number of firms in these countries (figure 4.5). This trend suggests an increased internationalization of equity financing, with borrowers and lenders migrating to foreign markets and a diminishing role for domestic markets in LAC7, which have remained relatively underdeveloped and illiquid compared to those in other emerging regions. Nature of Financing in Foreign Markets Although the use of foreign markets for financing has been relatively stable over the past 20 years, as documented above, we have observed changes in the nature of the external financing of both the public and the private sector for a number of countries. These changes may reflect tighter links among financial markets in a more globalized world. In fact, positive developments in domestic markets are being matched by positive developments in foreign markets. For example, the maturity of public and private sector bonds in LAC7 countries has typically lengthened, and local currency bond financing abroad has expanded, although it still remains very limited. Nevertheless, there is a long road ahead for emerging markets in increasing the depth and breadth of external financing. Private bond and equity markets remain on average small and highly concentrated financial globalization 189 Figure 4.5 Equity Trading in Domestic and Foreign Markets by Selected Countries and Regions, 2000–09 Share of value traded abroad as % of total value traded 70 60 % of total value traded 50 40 30 20 10 0 a na ) ) ) (5 (5 (6 di s ed pe n hi In ) ro ter -7 ia 7 (5 ie nc C ) C As (7 G Eu Eas om va LA on Ad Ec er th O Countries and regions 2000–03 2004–07 2008–09 Source: Bank of New York; Bloomberg. Note: This figure shows the cross-country averages of firm-level value traded in depository receipts over total value traded (in domestic markets and depository receipts). All depository receipts identified in the Depository Receipt Directory of the Bank of New York, with trading data reported in Bloomberg, are considered in this figure. Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries considered in each region. in large firms, reinforcing trends in local markets. We now review more systematically these qualitative developments in firm financing abroad in light of the trends in domestic activity. Bond Markets While total bond issuance in foreign markets has not increased for most emerging countries, these countries have, on average, made a conscious effort to try to reduce currency and maturity mismatches, mitigating 190 emerging issues in financial development concerns about rollover difficulties. As in domestic bond markets, and most likely as a consequence of a series of financial crises in the 1990s, the maturity profile of both public and private sector bonds abroad has lengthened during the 2000s for a number of emerging markets, and especially for LAC7 countries. For example, relative to the 1990s, the average maturity of LAC7 private sector foreign bonds has increased by almost 12 months on average, whereas that for the public sector has increased from 7.7 to 13.2 years (figure 4.6). At the same time, both the public and the private sector in many emerging countries have been able to issue bonds in local currency in foreign markets. For example, 7 percent of the LAC7 private sector bonds and 11 percent of the public sector bonds issued abroad in the 2000s were denominated in local currency, whereas there were virtually none in the 1990s. Of course, these percentages are small compared to the Figure 4.6 Average Maturity of Bonds at Issuance in Foreign Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1991–2008 a. Private sector 9.0 8.5 8.0 7.5 7.0 Years 6.5 6.0 5.5 5.0 4.5 4.0 ) na ) a ) (7 d pe rn (5 (7 (7 di ie nce hi ro ste ) ) In ia -7 7 (6 C C om va As G Eu Ea s LA on Ad Ec er th O Countries and regions 1991–99 2000–08 (continued next page) financial globalization 191 Figure 4.6 (continued) b. Public sector 14 12 10 8 Years 6 4 2 0 na ) ) ) s ed (7 (5 (5 pe n hi ) ie nc ro ter -7 ia 7 (7 C ) C (7 As G om va Eu Eas LA on Ad Ec her t O Countries and regions 1991–99 2000–08 Source: SDC Platinum. Note: Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. capacity of advanced economies to issue local currency bonds in foreign markets (figure 4.7). Despite the positive changes in the terms of the bonds issued abroad, access and concentration in foreign markets are still concerns for many emerging countries. Only a small number of firms use foreign bond markets for new capital in comparison to developed countries. In fact, the number of firms in LAC7 and emerging Asian countries that raise capital in foreign bond markets has declined considerably during the 2000s compared to the 1990s (figure 4.8a). At the same time, markets remain largely concentrated, with top issuers representing a significant fraction of new bond financing abroad. In the past 10 years, this concentration has even increased over the previous decade for most emerging markets, including LAC7 countries. In other words, only a few firms still seem to capture the bulk of the market (figure 4.8). 192 emerging issues in financial development Figure 4.7 Ratio of Foreign Currency Bonds to Total Bonds at Issuance in Foreign Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1991–2008 a. Private sector % of total foreign bond by the private sector 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 ) na ) a ) (7 d pe rn (5 (7 (7 di ie nce hi ro ste ) ) In ia -7 7 (6 C C om a As G Eu Ea v s LA on Ad Ec er th O Countries and regions 1991–99 2000–08 b. Public sector 100 90 % of total foreign bond by 80 the public sector 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 ) a ) ) (7 d (7 n (5 (7 (5 n ie nce pe er hi ) ) ro ast ia -7 7 C C om va As G s LA Eu E on Ad Ec r e th O Countries and regions 1991–99 2000–08 Source: SDC Platinum. Note: Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. financial globalization 193 Figure 4.8 Issuance Activity in Foreign Private Bond Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1991–2008 a. Average number of firms issuing bonds abroad per year 120 100 80 Number of firms 60 40 20 0 ) na ) a ) (7 d pe rn (5 (7 (7 di ie nce hi ro ste ) ) In ia -7 7 (6 C C om va As G Eu Ea s LA on Ad Ec r e th O Countries and regions 1991–99 2000–08 (continued next page) Equity Markets Like bond markets, foreign equity markets remain a limited option for firm financing among emerging economies. Compared to developed countries, the number of firms using foreign equity finance on a regular basis is rather small in emerging markets. For instance, in LAC7 and Asian countries, about two firms on average issued equity in any given year during the 2000s, while over 15 firms did so in developed countries. Moreover, the average number of firms raising capital in equity markets has declined significantly for many emerging economies, including those in LAC7, whereas it has actually increased for developed countries over the same period (figure 4.9a). At the same time, equity financing in foreign markets has been highly concentrated in a few issues. The share of the total amount raised abroad by the largest five issues has, in fact, increased 194 emerging issues in financial development Figure 4.8 (continued) b. Concentration in foreign private bond markets 100 90 % of total amount raised abroad 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 ) na ) a ) (7 d pe rn (5 (7 (3 di ie nce hi ro ste ) ) In ia -7 7 (2 C C om va As G Eu Ea s LA on Ad Ec r e th O Countries and regions 1991–99 2000–08 Source: SDC Platinum. Note: 4.8b shows the amount raised by the top five bond issues by corporations as a percentage of the total amount raised by the private sector in foreign markets between 1991 and 2008. Only country-years with at least five issues were considered in this figure. Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries in each region. for LAC7 and a number of other emerging countries (figure 4.9b). Trading in foreign equity markets is also highly concentrated in a few firms, with the top five firms from LAC7 countries capturing more than 90 percent of the total trading abroad for these countries (figure 4.9c). Firms Using Foreign Markets It is well known that larger firms have greater access to domestic capital markets, due at least in part to cost and liquidity considerations. In practice, these considerations render the minimum issue size rather financial globalization 195 Figure 4.9 Issuance Activity in Foreign Equity Markets in Selected Countries and Regions, 1991–2008 a. Average number of firms issuing equity in foreign markets per year 80 70 60 Number of firms 50 40 30 20 10 0 na a (7 n ) ) ) (7 (5 (7 (7 d di pe er hi ie nce ) In ro ast -7 ia 7 ) C C As G om va Eu E LA s on Ad Ec er th O Countries and regions 1991–99 2000–08 b. Share of amount raised by the top five issues as % of total amount raised abroad 100 90 % of total amount raised abroad 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 a na ) ) ) (1 n (5 d (6 (1 (2 di pe er ie nce hi In ) ) -7 ia 7 ro ast C C As G om va LA Eu E s on Ad Ec er th O Countries and regions 1991–99 2000–08 (continued next page) 196 emerging issues in financial development Figure 4.9 (continued) c. Share of value traded abroad by the top-five firms over total value traded abroad 100 90 80 % of total value traded 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 a na ) ) ) (1 n (5 d (5 (1 (4 di pe er ie nce hi In ) ) -7 ia ro ast 7 C C As G om va LA Eu E s on Ad Ec r e th O Countries and regions 2000–03 2004–07 2008–09 Source: SDC Platinum; Bank of New York; Bloomberg. Note: 4.9b includes only country-years with at least five issues. 4.9c shows the cross-country average of firm-level value traded in depository receipts for the top-five firms over the total value traded in domestic and foreign markets. Only countries with more than five firms with depository receipt programs were considered in this figure. All depository receipts identified in the Depository Receipt Directory of the Bank of New York, with trading data reported in Bloomberg, are included in this figure. Numbers in parentheses show the number of countries considered in each region. high for smaller firms. However, firm-level data on publicly listed firms indicate that even among this set of relatively large firms, only a few firms have made use of capital market financing abroad. Typically, firms from developing countries that raise capital in foreign financial markets are larger, with faster-growing sales and more liquidity (cash-to-current-assets ratios), than firms that do not issue bonds or equities abroad. The fact that only a restricted set of firms uses capital markets can be explained at least in part by supply factors; as documented in a number of papers and mentioned in chapter 3, institutional investors tend to invest in larger and financial globalization 197 more liquid firms, hence limiting the supply of funds available to smaller and less liquid firms. Safer Integration Over the past 20 years, the composition of foreign assets and foreign liabilities has been shifting, and this change has given rise to a safer form of financial integration among emerging markets. Many of these countries have steadily reduced their debt liabilities and increased their equity liabilities. At the same time, having learned the lessons of the Asian currency crises of the late 1990s, they accumulated large amounts of international reserves, which contributed to their improved macroeconomic and financial stances. Thus emerging economies have become net creditors to the rest of the world in debt contracts and net debtors in equity contracts (particularly through FDI) (figure 4.10). Figure 4.10 Net Foreign Assets: Equity and Debt Positions in Selected Countries and Regions, 1990–2007 a. Asia 20 Net creditor 10 0 –10 –20 % of GDP Net debtor –30 –40 –50 –60 –70 –80 0 1 2 3 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 199 Year Net equity Net debt Net debt position position position (excluding reserves) (continued next page) 198 emerging issues in financial development Figure 4.10 (continued) b. China 60 50 Net creditor 40 30 20 % of GDP 10 0 Net debtor –10 –20 –30 –40 0 1 2 3 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 199 Year Net equity Net debt Net debt position position position (excluding reserves) c. Eastern Europe 0 –5 –10 –15 Net debtor –20 % of GDP –25 –30 –35 –40 –45 –50 0 1 2 3 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 199 Year Net equity Net debt Net debt position position position (excluding reserves) (continued next page) financial globalization 199 Figure 4.10 (continued) d. G-7 Net creditor 20 15 10 5 % of GDP 0 –5 Net debtor –10 –15 –20 0 1 2 3 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 199 Year Net equity Net debt Net debt position position position (excluding reserves) e. India Net creditor 10 5 0 –5 % of GDP Net debtor –10 –15 –20 –25 –30 –35 0 1 2 3 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 199 Year Net equity Net debt Net debt position position position (excluding reserves) (continued next page) 200 emerging issues in financial development Figure 4.10 (continued) f. LAC7 Net creditor 10 5 0 –5 % of GDP –10 Net debtor –15 –20 –25 –30 –35 0 1 2 3 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 199 Year Net equity Net debt Net debt position position position (excluding reserves) g. Other Advanced Economies 0 –5 –10 –15 Net debtor % of GDP –20 –25 –30 –35 –40 –45 0 1 2 3 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 199 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 199 Year Net equity Net debt Net debt position position position (excluding reserves) Source: Lane and Milesi-Ferretti 2007. Note: Net equity and net debt positions are reported as a percentage of GDP. GDP = gross domestic product. financial globalization 201 These changes in the structure of emerging countries’ external assets and liabilities may play a role in avoiding the downside risks of financial globalization. For instance, compare the experience of the 2008–09 global financial crisis with that of earlier crises. In earlier episodes, the devaluations that typically ensued tended to increase the burden of foreign debt issued in foreign currency; in addition, market shutdowns triggered rollover crises because of the high incidence of short-term debt. During the 2008–09 crisis, in contrast, the devaluations implied an improvement in the external positions of emerging economies (when measured in local currency) due to their net creditor status (see Didier, Hevia, and Schmukler 2012). Moreover, the external liability was reduced as equity prices plummeted around the world and the net debtor equity position shrank. The large pool of international reserves also played an important role in emerging countries: it slowed down the appreciation of the domestic currency during the precrisis expansionary period, and it served as a self-insurance mechanism during the crisis, deterring currency and banking panics. In fact, when the global crisis erupted, many emerging countries held international reserves in excess of their stock of short-term foreign liabilities. In practice, this eliminated concerns about debt rollover difficulties, giving investors fewer incentives to attack domestic currencies. Conclusions LAC has continued its financial globalization in recent years. De facto financial integration as measured by the stock of foreign assets and liabilities and by gross capital flows has continued to increase. While this increase has been significant, LAC has not been alone in the process. Many other regions of the world, developed and emerging countries alike, have also deepened their globalization. This trend has been particularly pronounced in developed countries, where the stock of foreign assets and liabilities on average almost doubled in the 2000s relative to the 1990s. In contrast, emerging countries typically experienced increases of about 50 percent over the same period, with Eastern European countries and China slightly ahead of the others. LAC has not used international capital markets extensively for firm financing purposes, although it did so for equity trading purposes. The public sector, however, has increasingly used domestic markets. These two markets have alternatively served firms and governments, and their developments are tightly linked. Probably because of past crises, LAC has used this globalization process to integrate with the rest of the world in a safer manner. The picture of financial globalization presented here is admittedly somewhat incomplete and requires more research, as the measures we study capture only part of the financial integration process. Other important aspects are the ability to trade assets across countries, the capacity of financial institutions to operate in different jurisdictions 202 emerging issues in financial development (most notably foreign banks operating at home), and the equalization of asset prices and returns across borders (even without actual transactions taking place). Furthermore, the evidence on the expansion of the stock of foreign assets and liabilities might reflect not only increased gross capital flows, as shown here, but also valuation effects. Capital gains and losses on outstanding holdings of foreign assets and liabilities can be sizable indeed. These caveats suggest caution in interpreting the evidence. Indeed, according to some alternative measures of globalization, LAC countries and other emerging markets have not increased the extent of their financial integration significantly in recent years (chapter 5). For policy makers, the continuing integration of LAC with the interna- tional financial system raises many questions. First, what are the net effects of globalization? On the positive side, it allows agents to diversify risk and tap into other investment opportunities; it also allows firms and governments to reduce the cost of capital by accessing funds that would otherwise be harder to obtain. On the negative side is the potential migration of financing activity to international markets, which may reduce such activity at home and thus slow domestic financial development. However, the underdevelopment of local markets is unlikely attributable to the globalization process alone, since countries from other emerging regions have witnessed greater development of local markets as well as more financial globalization. Another potentially negative effect comes from the shocks to international investors, which might introduce more volatility into domestic economies. Second, does financial globalization entail more risk? The answer on the equity side appears to be no. On the debt side, financial globalization may carry exchange rate risk if debt securities are issued in foreign currency. It may also entail maturity risk if it allows shorter forms of financing. To the extent that domestic markets provide local currency financing, they would play an important role. Third, what is the relation between domestic and international markets? In particular, do domestic and international capital markets act as complements or substitutes? This chapter has provided some evidence suggesting that they are complements. Fourth, is financial globalization just a search for more and cheaper capital from segmented markets? Is it a quest for better corporate governance? The literature has put forward arguments supporting both perspectives, and some evidence suggests that the former cannot be rejected. Fifth, since several of the trends documented here are similar across countries, what is the role for domestic policy making, given these secular forces? Notes 1. See Ceballos, Didier, and Schmukler (2012a, 2012b) for a more extended discussion of these two aspects of globalization. financial globalization 203 2. See, for example, Lane and Milesi-Ferretti (2001, 2007), Gourinchas and Rey (2007), and Gourinchas, Govillot, and Rey (2010). 3. Notice that figure 4.3 shows the total amount raised in foreign markets, without any distinction of issuance activity taking place in developed or developing markets. Given their limited participation in developing - country markets, firms from developed countries thus typically raise capital in foreign developed markets. References Bank of New York. http://www.bnymellon.com/. BIS (Bank for International Settlements). http://www.bis.org/. Bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/. Ceballos, F., T. Didier, and S. Schmukler. 2012a. “Different Facets of Financial Globalisation.” VoxEU.org, August 28. ———. 2012b. “Financial Globalization in Emerging Countries: Diversification vs. Offshoring.” In New Paradigms for Financial Regulation: Emerging Market Perspectives, edited by Mario B. Lamberte and Eswar Prasad, 110–28. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution; Tokyo: ADBI. Didier, T., C. Hevia, and S. Schmukler. 2012. “How Resilient Were Emerging Economies to the Global Crisis?” Journal of International Money and Finance 31 (8): 2052–77. Errunza, V. 2001. “Foreign Portfolio Equity Investments, Financial Liberalization, and Economic Development.” Review of International Economics 9: 703–26. Gourinchas, P. O., N. Govillot, and H. Rey. 2010. “Exorbitant Privilege and Exorbitant Duty.” Mimeo. London Business School. Gourinchas, P. O., and H. Rey. 2007. “International Financial Adjustment.” Journal of Political Economy 115 (4): 665–703. IMF (International Monetary Fund). http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm. ———. Balance of Payments Statistics (BOP). http://www.imf.org/external/np/sta/ bop/bop.htm. Lane, P. R., and G. M. Milesi-Ferretti. 2001. “The External Wealth of Nations: Measures of Foreign Assets and Liabilities for Industrial and Developing Countries.” Journal of International Economics 55: 263–94. ———. 2007. “The External Wealth of Nations Mark II: Revised and Extended Estimates of Foreign Assets and Liabilities, 1970–2004.” Journal of International Economics 73: 223–50. SDC Platinum. http://thomsonreuters.com/sdc-platinum/. Stulz, R. 1999. “Globalization, Corporate Finance, and the Cost of Capital.” Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 12: 8–25. 5 Financial Globalization in Latin America and the Caribbean: Myth, Reality, and Policy Matters Eduardo Levy-Yeyati and Tomás Williams Abstract Financial globalization, defined as global links through cross-border financial flows, has become increasingly relevant for Latin American markets as they have integrated financially with the rest of the world. This chapter characterizes the evolution of financial global- ization in the region across countries and relative to other comparison groups. In particular, the chapter shows that, because of the way finan- cial globalization is often measured, the available evidence has led to the misperception that it has been growing in recent years. Contrary to conventional belief, in the 2000s financial globalization both in Latin America and in other emerging markets has grown only marginally and Eduardo Levy-Yeyati is a professor at Universidad de Buenos Aires and Univer- sidad Torwato Di Tella, and a Director at Elypsis Partners. Tomás Williams is at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. They want to thank seminar participants at the World Bank and, particularly, Tito Cordella, Augusto de la Torre, Alain Ize, and Sergio Schmukler for their valuable comments and suggestions, as well as Mariana Barrera for excellent research assistance. The material for this chapter borrows extensively from Levy-Yeyati and Williams (2011). 205 206 emerging issues in financial development much more slowly than in more advanced markets. In turn, interna- tional portfolio diversification (a welfare-improving source of con- sumption smoothing) has been limited at best and has been declining over time. The chapter also revisits the recent empirical literature on the implications of financial globalization for local market deepening, international risk diversification, and financial contagion. It finds that, whereas financial globalization has indeed fostered the deepening of domestic markets in good times, it has yielded neither the dividends of consumption smoothing nor the costs of amplifying global financial shocks. Introduction For a number of reasons, financial globalization, understood as the deepening of cross-border capital flows and asset holdings, has become increasingly relevant for the developing world, including the consequences of its changing composition, its role in the transmission of global financial shocks, its benefits of international risk sharing and business cycle smoothing, and its implications for monetary, exchange rate, and macroprudential policies. In this chapter, we focus on these issues from a conceptual and empirical perspective, building on, updating, and adapting the existing literature to the case of emerging economies and customizing the discussion to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) in particular. The second section of the chapter looks at alternative measures of financial globalization, how they evolved over the recent period for a group of advanced, emerging, and frontier markets and where we see it moving forward in intensity, direction, and composition. The third section tackles two key trade-offs highlighted in the debate on financial globalization—that between financial globalization, on the one hand, and financial development (understood as the depth of local markets) and financial stability, on the other. The chapter concludes with some normative implications of the empirical analyses presented in the previous sections. Financial Globalization at First Glance: Is LAC Different? How do we measure financial globalization?1 Despite being the subject of a rich and growing literature, the concept of financial globalization has been defined in various, often uncorrelated ways in the academic financial globalization in latin america 207 research.2 As a result, assessing a country’s integration with international financial markets remains a complicated and controversial task. Indeed, there is a general consensus about the need to distinguish at least between two alternative interpretations of the concept: de jure and de facto financial globalization and associated measures. While the former is based on regulations, restrictions, and controls over capital flows and asset ownership, the latter is related to the intensity of capital flows and cross- market correlation and arbitrage. It is well accepted by now that the extent to which globalization affects asset prices and, more generally, economic performance is related to the intensity and sensitivity of the cross-border flows, that is, de facto financial globalization, typically measured based on foreign asset and liability holdings. A first, more conventional look at the data is provided by figure 5.1, which compares the evolution of financial globalization for a group of more financially integrated LAC countries (LAC7, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay) and other LAC countries, throwing in a sample of non-LAC emerging markets and a group of peripheral core economies that are more readily comparable to the emerging markets. The figure shows the traditional “stock” proxy— foreign assets plus foreign liabilities over gross domestic product (GDP), broken down into equity, debt, and foreign direct investment (FDI) Figure 5.1 Financial Globalization Measures in Selected Economies, 1990–2007 a. Emerging markets 3.5 3.0 2.5 3.0 2.0 De jure openness 2.5 1.5 % of GDP 2.0 1.0 0.5 1.5 0.0 1.0 –0.5 –1.0 0.5 –1.5 0.0 –2.0 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 90 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 19 Year LMF equity (% GDP) LMF debt (% GDP) LMF FDI (% GDP) De jure openness (secondary axis) (continued next page) 208 emerging issues in financial development Figure 5.1 (continued) b. Other LACs 3.5 3.0 2.5 3.0 2.0 De jure openness 2.5 1.5 % of GDP 2.0 1.0 0.5 1.5 0.0 1.0 –0.5 –1.0 0.5 –1.5 0.0 –2.0 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 Year LMF equity (% GDP) LMF debt (% GDP) LMF FDI (% GDP) De jure openness (secondary axis) c. Peripheral Core Economies 3.5 3.0 2.5 3.0 2.0 2.5 De jure openness 1.5 % of GDP 2.0 1.0 0.5 1.5 0.0 1.0 –0.5 –1.0 0.5 –1.5 0.0 –2.0 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 Year LMF equity (% GDP) LMF debt (% GDP) LMF FDI (% GDP) De jure openness (secondary axis) (continued next page) financial globalization in latin america 209 Figure 5.1 (continued) d. LAC6 3.5 3.0 2.5 3.0 2.0 De jure openness 2.5 1.5 2.0 1.0 0.5 1.5 0.0 1.0 –0.5 –1.0 0.5 –1.5 0.0 –2.0 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 Year LMF equity (% GDP) LMF debt (% GDP) LMF FDI (% GDP) De jure openness (secondary axis) Sources: Lane and Milesi-Ferretti 2008;WDI; Chinn and Ito 2007. Note: This figure shows country group averages of de facto financial globalization measures over GDP and de jure measures of financial globalization for balanced panel data. LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean; FDI = foreign direct investment; LMF = Lane and Milesi-Ferretti. holdings—based on Lane and Milesi-Ferretti’s (2007) data, as well as on Chinn and Ito’s (2007) de jure measure of financial globalization for comparison.3 A few nontrivial aspects emerge from the figure. First, the correlation between de jure and de facto measures of financial globalization is far from perfect. LAC appears to be the only group for which, in the past two decades, de jure financial globalization (higher than for its emerging- market peers) outpaced de facto financial globalization—particularly for non-LAC6 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru), where de facto and de jure measures of financial globalization seem to go in opposite ways. De facto financial globalization increases despite a stable de jure financial globalization both for emerging markets and for the more globalized peripheral core economies. Second, LAC, while not very different from other emerging markets, lags the latter in financial globalization. In LAC, a relatively stable ratio of financial globalization to GDP masks the increasing role of FDI. And more recently, equity markets have become the main vehicles for cross-border 210 emerging issues in financial development investments. These developments, coupled with a marked decline in debt liabilities, offer possible explanations for part of the lag in financial globalization. This lag can be readily seen in figure 5.2, which compares the cumulative change in foreign stocks for the three different instruments (equity, debt, and FDI) over the periods of 1990–99 and 1999–2007, distinguishing between asset and liability holdings. Again, LAC underperformed emerging markets and peripheral core economies in the 1990s, with the exception of the growth in FDI liabilities, where LAC6 outdid the emerging-markets group, and non-LAC6 ranked above the rest. The 2000s show a similar picture of the performance of LAC economies relative to the emerging-markets group. The figure also shows the already mentioned pattern in debt securities: declining debt liabilities coupled with growing reserve assets, although this combination masks an important difference in the case of LAC: the greater incidence of debt restructuring in the 1990s in the region that helped reduce the debt burden, as well as the real depreciation trend that boosted the ratio of reserves to GDP due to valuation changes—two “supporting” factors that were largely absent in the 2000s. Figure 5.2 Changes in de Facto Financial Globalization Measures in Selected Economies, 1990–2007 a. Equity assets and liabilities, 1990–1999 25 20 15 Percent 10 5 0 ke g 6 s ie e ar in C C om or ts LA LA m erg s on l c ec era Em er th h O rip Pe Regions and economies Equity assets Equity liabilities (continued next page) financial globalization in latin america 211 Figure 5.2 (continued) a. FDI assets and liabilities, 1990–99 25 20 15 Percent 10 5 0 ke g 6 s ie e ar in C C om or ts LA LA m erg s on l c ec era Em er th h O rip Pe Regions and economies FDI assets FDI liabilities a. DEBT assets and liabilities, 1990–99 15 10 5 Percent 0 –5 –10 –15 –20 ke g 6 s ie e ar in C C om or ts LA LA m erg s on l c ec era Em er th h O rip Pe Regions and economies Debt assets Debt liabilities Reserves (continued next page) 212 emerging issues in financial development Figure 5.2 (continued) b. Equity assets and liabilities, 1999–2007 20 18 16 14 12 Percent 10 8 6 4 2 0 ke g 6 s ie e ar in C C om or ts LA LA m erg s on l c ec era Em er th h O rip Pe Regions and economies Equity assets Equity liabilities b. FDI assets and liabilities, 1999–2007 25 20 15 Percent 10 5 0 ke g 6 s ie e ar in AC C om or ts LA m erg s on l c rL ec era Em e th h O rip Pe Regions and economies FDI assets FDI liabilities (continued next page) financial globalization in latin america 213 Figure 5.2 (continued) b. DEBT assets and liabilities, 1999–2007 40 30 20 Percent 10 0 –10 –20 ke g 6 s ie e ar in C C om or ts LA LA m erg s on l c ec era Em er th h O rip Pe Regions and economies Debt assets Debt liabilities Reserves Source: Lane and Milesi-Ferretti 2008; WDI. Note: This figure shows changes in de facto financial globalization measures from LMF (2008) over GDP. PCE = peripheral core economies; EM = emerging markets; GDP = gross domestic product; FDI = foreign direct investment. Figure 5.3 offers an alternative cut of the same data on foreign equity and debt liabilities for the 2000s, this time normalizing by the host market capitalization, to focus on the question about whether a growing financial globalization (over GDP) is a sign (and, possibly, a consequence) of greater foreign participation or whether it just reflects (and responds to) the autonomous deepening of domestic markets, including the persistent price rallies.4 The renormalization shows that the deepening of domestic markets played a central role in explaining the increase in the ratio of financial globalization to GDP, especially for LAC6 equity markets where the ratios of financial globalization to market capitalization (marcap) remained virtually unchanged for the latest period. In turn, a large part of this equity market “deepening” (more precisely, the increase in the ratio of the marcap to GDP during the period) was mechanically driven by price increases rather than by new issuance. Finally, figure 5.4 looks at the evolution of data on capital flow from the balance of payments statistics, again showing the breakdown into equity and debt securities and FDI, normalizing by the country´s GDP. 214 emerging issues in financial development Figure 5.3 Different Normalizations for Financial Globalization in Selected Economies, 1999–2007 a. Foreign equity liabilities 10 8 6 Percent 4 2 0 –2 6 ke ng l on ore era C ar rgi LA ts c h e rip s Em ie Pe om m ec Economies FEL/GDP FEL/Mcap b. Foreign DEBT liabilities 30 20 10 Percent 0 –10 –20 –30 6 ke ng l on ore ra C ar gi LA ec c iphe ts er s Em ie r Pe om m Economies FDL/GDP FDL/debt Source: Lane and Milesi-Ferretti 2008; WDI; BIS. Note: This figure presents changes in the ratio of foreign equity to market capitalization and in the ratio of debt liabilities to total debt. Changes are from 1999 to 2007. PCE = peripheral core economies; EM = emerging markets; LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean; FDL = foreign debt liabilities; GDP = gross domestic product; FEL = foreign equity labilities. financial globalization in latin america 215 Figure 5.4 Financial Globalization Flows in Selected Regions and Economies, 1990–2009 a. Emerging markets 0.5 10 0.4 0.3 5 0.2 0.1 % of GDP Percent 0.0 0 –0.1 –0.2 –5 –0.3 –0.4 –10 –0.5 19 6 90 91 20 1 09 20 0 92 19 8 20 3 20 5 08 93 19 4 97 99 02 04 06 95 07 9 0 0 9 0 0 9 19 19 19 20 20 19 19 20 20 20 19 19 20 Year Net equity - BoP (% GDP) Net debt - BoP (% GDP) Net FDI - BoP (% GDP) AUM flows (see right axis) b. Other LAC countries 10 5 % of GDP 0 –5 –10 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 Year Net FDI - BoP (% GDP) Net debt - BoP (% GDP) (continued next page) 216 emerging issues in financial development Figure 5.4 (continued) c. Peripheral core economies 10 5 % of GDP 0 –5 –10 09 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 20 3 04 05 06 07 08 0 20 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 Year Net FDI - BoP (% GDP) Net debt - BoP (% GDP) Net equity - BoP (% GDP) d. LAC6 10 5 % of GDP 0 –5 –10 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 20 0 01 02 20 3 04 20 5 06 07 08 09 0 0 0 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 Year Net FDI - BoP (% GDP) Net debt - BoP (% GDP) Net equity - BoP (% GDP) Source: IFS; WDI. Note: This figure shows country group averages of flow data over GDP for balanced panel data. FDI = foreign direct investment; AUM = assets under management; BoP = balance of payments; GDP = gross domestic product; LAC = Latin America and the Carribbean. financial globalization in latin america 217 The figure, which illustrates the positive net inflows for the emerging- markets group for most of the period of study, highlights the comparatively smaller portfolio inflow to LAC6: for all the recent debate on hot money and portfolio flows, FDI continues to be the most important (and stable) source of external finance for the group in general. This fact is also true for the emerging-markets group during the early period, although portfolio inflows have matched FDI inflows in recent years. A second aspect to note is the negative debt flow into LAC6, in line with the holdings data, and an indication that the declining foreign debt liability position owes more to the sovereign debt deleveraging process than to a deepening of the domestic corporate debt market. Finally, and perhaps more important, flow data show that financial globalization in emerging markets in general—and LAC in particular, as represented by net cross-market equity and debt flows—clearly lags behind comparable advanced economies. How correlated are holdings with flows? Is a higher ratio of stock of foreign assets and liabilities to GDP (as financial globalization is typically measured in the economic literature) associated with larger flows of capital in and out of the economy? Note that the previous question goes beyond the mechanical exercise of assessing the extent to which alternative definitions of financial globalization refer to the same economic phenomenon. As noted above, one of the controversial aspects of financial globalization is its influence on local market development and the domestic business cycle through the composition, quality, and intensity of capital flows. At its best, that influence enhances market liquidity and productivity growth in capital-constrained economies and, at its worst, may lead to procyclical overheating, asset inflation, and overindebtedness. From this perspective, are countries with larger foreign holdings more prone to these influences? Can traditional stock measures of financial globalization tell us something about the size of capital flows? As shown in Levy-Yeyati and Williams (2011), the empirical answer is yes, to varying degrees. Table 5.1 presents a simple illustration with a focus on LAC. Regressing the absolute value of balance of payments flows on the beginning-of- the-period holdings (see Lane and Milesi-Ferretti 2007) and controlling for time effects to eliminate common time trends, we find a significant link between holdings and flows, predictably stronger for FDI and equity cross-border flows (a large part of which are traded through benchmarked funds that allocate new flows or liquidate positions in proportion to local market share in the benchmark). Figure 5.5 shows the corresponding partial regression plots. In short, the first pass at the data on financial globalization provides a few preliminary findings. First, there seems to be less financial global- ization in LAC than usually thought. More precisely, if financial glo- balization in emerging markets lags that in peripheral core economies, LAC6 clearly lags emerging markets even when financial globalization is measured in GDP. However, financial globalization in less financially Table 5.1 Capital Flows and Initial Holdings by Instrument in LAC and Other Emerging Markets, 1990–2007 218 EM EM LAC6 LAC6 Other LACs Other LACs FE BE FE BE FE BE Equity Liab. Equity Liab. Equity Liab. Equity Liab. Equity Liab. Equity Liab. Variables Flows Flows Flows Flows Flows Flows Stock of foreign 3.74*** 10.49** 2.59* −7.85 0.00 0.00 equity liabilities (0.84) (3.37) (1.05) (0.00) (0.00) (0.01) Observations 279 279 102 102 102 102 2 R 0.21 0.82 0.44 0.98 0.17 0.33 Countries 19 19 6 6 6 6 EM EM LAC6 LAC6 Other LACs Other LACs FE BE FE BE FE BE Variables Debt Liab.Flows Debt Liab.Flows Debt Liab.Flows Debt Liab.Flows Debt Liab.Flows Debt Liab.Flows Stock of foreign debt 1.97 2.44* 0.10 8.19 0.01 0.00 liabilities (2.41) (1.20) (1.81) (4.36) (0.02) (0.03) Observations 289 289 106 106 101 101 2 R 0.07 0.73 0.17 0.72 0.24 0.60 Countries 18 18 6 6 6 6 Table 5.1 Capital Flows and Initial Holdings by Instrument in LAC and Other Emerging Markets, 1990–2007 (continued) EM EM LAC6 LAC6 Other LACs Other LACs FE BE FE BE FE BE Variables FDI Liab. Flows FDI Liab. Flows FDI Liab. Flows FDI Liab. Flows FDI Liab. Flows FDI Liab. Flows Stock of foreign FDI 22.89** 17.30*** −0.90 10.10*** 0.04** 0.11** Liabilities (8.84) (3.71) (3.74) (1.21) (0.01) (0.03) Observations 327 327 108 108 102 102 2 R 0.46 0.64 0.44 0.96 0.33 0.80 Countries 19 19 6 6 6 6 Note: Robust standard errors in parentheses. FG stock variables are lagged one period. All estimations include time dummies and capital account openness as additional control. *, ** and *** indicates significance at the 10 percent, 5 percent, and 1 percent level, respectively. LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean; EM = emerging markets; FDI = foreign direct investment; FE = fixed-effects estimation; BE = between estimation. 219 220 emerging issues in financial development Figure 5.5 Flows versus Initial Holdings in LAC6 and Emerging Markets, 1990–2007 a. Equity flows vs. equity initial holdings in LAC6 6 4 e (abs_pesl_bop | X) 2 0 –2 –4 –.1 –.005 0 .05 .1 .15 e ( lmf_pel_gdp_ 1 | X) coef = 2.3432034, (robust) se = .65462293, t = 3.58 b. Equity flows vs. equity initial holdings in emerging markets 6 4 e (abs_pesl_bop | X) 2 0 –2 –.2 –.1 0 .1 .2 e ( lmf_pel_gdp_ 1 | X) coef = 7.8144459, (robust) se = 1.0738445, t = 7.28 (continued next page) financial globalization in latin america 221 Figure 5.5 (continued) c. Equity flows vs. equity initial holdings in other LAC countries .0008 .0006 e (abs_pesl_bop | X) .0004 .0002 0 –.0002 –.01 0 .01 .02 e ( eq_liab_lmf_ 1 | X) coef = .00021331, (robust) se = .00081951, t = .26 d. Debt flows vs. debt initial holdings in LAC6 3 2 e (abspesl_bop | X ) 1 0 –1 –2 –.2 0 .2 .4 .6 e ( lmf_dl_gdp_ 1 | X ) coef = .30657937, (robust) se = .90986862, t = .34 (continued next page) 222 emerging issues in financial development Figure 5.5 (continued) e. Debt flows vs. debt initial holdings in emerging markets 4 e (abspdsl_bop | X) 2 0 –2 –.4 –.2 0 .2 .4 e (lmf_dl_gdp_ 1 | X) coef = .39341483, (robust) se = .42572822, t = .92 f. Debt flows vs. debt initial holdings in other LAC countries .1 e (abs_debt_liab_bop | X) .05 0 –.05 –.4 –.2 0 .2 .4 e (debt_liab_lmf_ 1 | X) coef = .00645045, (robust) se = .00773327, t = .83 (continued next page) financial globalization in latin america 223 Figure 5.5 (continued) g. FDI flows vs. FDI initial holdings in LAC6 6 4 e (absfdi_bop | X) 2 0 –2 –4 –.2 0 1 2 .3 .4 e (lmf_fdil_gdp_ 1 | X) coef = 8.6901962, (robust) se = 1.3018553, t = 6.68 h. FDI flows vs. FDI initial holdings in emerging markets 15 10 e (absfdi_bop | X) 5 0 –5 –.2 0 .2 .4 e (lmf_fdil_gdp_ 1 | X) coef = 8.8312368, (robust) se = 1.1677394, t = 7.56 (continued next page) 224 emerging issues in financial development Figure 5.5 (continued) i. FDI flows vs. FDI initial holdings in other LAC countries .1 e (abs_fdi_liab_bop | X) .05 0 –.05 –.2 0 .2 .4 e (fdi_liab_lmf_1 | X) coef = .08800004, (robust) se = .0164168, t = 5.36 Sources: Lane and Milesi-Ferretti 2008; IFS; WDI; Chinn and Ito 2007. Note: This figure shows partial regression plots from estimations of abs (liability flows) versus lagged financial globalization liability holdings for different instruments (equity, debt, FDI). Time dummies and de jure capital account openness were included as additional controls. integrated LAC, while higher, is dominated by FDI and debt securities (the latter likely reflecting the offshoring of intermediation: external sov- ereign borrowing coupled with capital flight to external fixed-income securities). Second, the pattern of declining financial globalization in LAC7 in the 2000s masks a combination of debt deleveraging and a gradual increase in cross-border liabilities in FDI and equity. This pattern has been used in the past to argue for a change in the composition of portfolio flows (from fixed- to variable-income instruments) more conducive to international risk sharing, as equity liabilities tend to adjust countercyclically. However, when normalized by market size, financial globalization reveals a different pattern. While the pattern of declining debt persists, and is even more marked for emerging markets as a whole, the growing trend in equity holdings weakens and fully disappears for emerging LAC.5 This result tells us that the often-cited increase in cross-border equity financial globalization in latin america 225 liabilities in LAC, rather than a proactive relocation of international capital, has largely mirrored the growing depth of local markets, which in turn have been boosted more by price increases before the crisis than by new (primary) issuance.6 Unlike in advanced economies, the flow composition of financial globalization is still dominated by FDI, particularly in LAC, a finding in line with its relatively less dynamic equity markets. And while in emerging markets equity flows have been gradually taking over debt flows as their main portfolio vehicle, in the 2000s net equity inflows in emerging LAC continued to be mostly negative, in line with the fall in foreign liability holdings over marcap. All of this contributed to a picture at odds with the globalizing story immediately brought to mind by the media hype and the precrisis boom in the Brazilian stock market. However, there seems to be little (if any) correlation between de jure and de facto measures. While this finding does not come as a surprise, it warns us that these measures represent different economic aspects and that, at the very least, they should not be used interchangeably. That lack of correlation is also the rationale for our focus on de facto financial globalization in the rest of the chapter. Finally, for FDI and equity instruments, there seems to be a significant correlation between liability holdings and the corresponding flows, suggesting that, while not interchangeable, larger stocks lead to larger flows, a link relevant to the discussion of financial globalization and financial stability below. Why Do We Care about Financial Globalization? Conventional wisdom tells us that financial globalization, by attracting sophisticated investors and considerable liquidity, should foster the development of domestic financial markets.7 However, deeper, more liquid markets are expected to attract the foreign inflows and larger, more sophisticated investors that require a minimum trading scale. Indeed, as we have shown above, while ratios of financial globalization to GDP have been on the rise for most emerging markets, ratios of financial globalization to marcap have remained relatively stable. Are the former (the key exhibit behind the conventional view of the ever- rising financial globalization in the emerging world) simply the indication that international investors are catching up, belatedly, with local market developments? Moreover, intuitively, tighter financial integration could foster the transmission of shocks in financial centers to peripheral advanced and developing markets, creating an exogenous source of financial (and ultimately real) instability. In what follows, we review and build on the empirical literature on the causes and consequences of financial globalization. 226 emerging issues in financial development Does Financial Globalization Foster Financial Depth? The drivers of financial globalization have not received much attention, despite the increase in financial integration in the past two decades. Many studies acknowledge the link between trade and financial openness, on the one hand, and the link between financial integration and domestic financial development on the other. However, many questions remain unanswered. Does the composition of financial integration matter? Is the link instrument specific (that is, does a deep domestic equity market lead to more financial globalization in the equity market, as opposed to financial globalization in general)? How do these links vary across different groups of countries? Finally, and perhaps more important, does financial development cause financial globalization, or is it the other way around? One can think of a number of portfolio considerations that intervene in the degree and intensity of cross-market investment. For starters, investors tend to maximize risk-adjusted returns across different markets, balancing yield equalization against diversification and risk pooling (the less correlated national markets are, the stronger that tendency of investors). But there are a number of aspects (broadly grouped as transaction costs) that are not included in the asset price quotation but may end up being more relevant than attractive yields or hedging benefits. These aspects include not only financial innovation that reduces transfer and settlement costs and facilitates monitoring and transparency but also access to specialized analysis (which, in turn, requires a minimum market size to justify specialization costs) and a rich menu of instruments to cater to specific investors, both of which require a minimum market size to justify specialization and standardization costs. Market size is also critical to liquidity risks, which may keep big players away. Thus, even in the face of a decline in credit risks (due to enhanced fiscal solvency, for example) or to a decline in currency risk (due to an improved balance of long currency positions or a reduced risk of a speculative attack on the currency), local markets may fail to fully develop scale until they gain a minimum scale. This rather circular logic highlights the simultaneity problem noted above: if, a priori, market depth is a condition of foreign participation and foreign participation fosters market deepening, how can we tell one link from the other? To shed light on the complex—and possibly bidirectional—connection between financial development and financial globalization, we first build on work by Lane and Milesi-Ferretti (2008) on the drivers of financial globalization, which reports a positive cross-country correlation between their measure of financial globalization (foreign asset plus foreign liabilities over GDP) and financial development (proxied by bank deposits and the ratio of stock market capitalization to GDP), for a sample of emerging financial globalization in latin america 227 markets and advanced markets. We extend their exercise to the period 1995–2007 (the latest year covered by Lane and Milesi-Ferretti (2007), include frontier markets in the sample, and run panel regressions for financial globalization as a whole and broken down into equity, debt, and FDI. In addition, we include time dummies to capture common factors such as global liquidity, risk aversion, or fund reallocations relative to core markets,8 and GDP per capita as a broad proxy for economic (and domestic financial) development.9 Last, but not least, the way in which financial globalization is measured is not irrelevant: an improvement in local market conditions should be correlated with an increase in gross (and net) foreign liabilities (locals bringing money back; foreigners bringing money in), rather than the standard measure of financial globalization used in Lane and Milesi-Ferretti (2008). A somewhat telling finding from the results (table 5.2) is the correlation between de jure and de facto financial globalization (the lower the restrictions, the higher Chinn-Ito’s index), which is generally not significant or of the opposite sign—yet another reason to focus on de facto measures. Note also that, while the literature that looks at the globalization-financial development link often treats foreign assets and liabilities similarly (as in the standard Lane and Milesi-Ferretti 2007 measure), there is in principle no reason why capital outflows should be positively related to local market development. By the same token, a deep equity market should attract equity flows but not necessarily other unrelated flows. As expected, there is a stronger connection between the depth of the local equity market and foreign investment in equity. The results for a sample of equity markets in developing countries show a closer link between local stock market development and foreign equity liabilities than the sum of assets and liabilities used in the original paper. The link between financial development and financial globalization is weaker across countries and stronger over time, where financial development is proxied by the sum of equity market capitalization and bank deposits over GDP as in the original specification in Lane and Milesi-Ferretti (2008) (table 5.2, columns 1 and 2). In addition, the relationship between financial development and financial globalization (column 3) in LAC countries is not unique. After that, we split our financial development proxy and consider bank deposits and equity market capitalization as different variables instead of their sum. Columns 4 and 5 show that financial globalization (as the sum of total foreign assets and liabilities) has a stronger link with bank deposits than with stock market capitalization and still does not show a differential effect for LAC economies. Furthermore, columns 7 and 8 confirm our hypothesis that a deep domestic equity market is strongly linked to more financial globalization in the equity market, as opposed to financial globalization in general. Interestingly, while this relationship is strong among emerging markets, LAC countries do not seem to have experienced the same link (column 9). Table 5.2 Financial Globalization and Financial Development in Emerging Markets and LAC, 1990–2007 228 EM EM EM+other EM+other EM EM EM+other External Internal Group of countries EM EM LACs EM EM LACs BE FE LACs GMM GMM Type of estimation BE FE FE BE FE FE (equity (equity FE (equity (equity Variables (FG) (FG) (FG) (FG) liabilities) liabilities) marcap) marcap) Trade 0.20 0.19 0.15 0.32* 0.18 0.17* −0.24 −0.26 −0.63 (0.14) (0.13) (0.11) (0.16) (0.12) (0.09) (0.41) (0.54) (0.67) Financial development 0.14 0.38*** 0.45*** (0.11) (0.07) (0.09) Financial −0.16 development*LAC (0.14) Equity mcap_GDP 0.16* 0.09** 0.07** 0.65** 0.49** 0.65*** (0.09) (0.04) (0.03) (0.23) (0.22) (0.23) Equity mcap_ −0.02 −0.63* GDP*LAC (0.06) (0.36) Bank deposits_GDP −0.19 0.43*** 0.60*** 0.63 −0.64* −0.12 Table 5.2 Financial Globalization and Financial Development in Emerging Markets and LAC, 1990–2007 (continued) EM EM EM+other EM+other EM EM EM+other External Internal Group of countries EM EM LACs EM EM LACs BE FE LACs GMM GMM Type of estimation BE FE FE BE FE FE (equity (equity FE (equity (equity Variables (FG) (FG) (FG) (FG) liabilities) liabilities) marcap) marcap) (0.19) (0.12) (0.14) (0.48) (0.36) (0.43) Bank deposits_ −0.31 0.19 GDP*LAC (0.22) (1.52) Foreign equity liab_ 0.40*** 0.41*** GDP (0.11) (0.13) GDP per capita PPP 0.14 0.00 −0.12 0.14 −0.14 −0.27 0.21 1.47* 0.10 0.41 0.54 (0.10) (0.21) (0.21) (0.10) (0.24) (0.24) (0.25) (0.85) (0.77) (0.74) (0.79) KA openness 0.11* −0.01 −0.01 0.09 −0.01 0.00 −0.01 0.09 0.06 (0.06) (0.02) (0.02) (0.06) (0.02) (0.02) (0.16) (0.10) (0.11) Constant −2.58** −2.43 −1.08 −2.75** −1.40 0.22 −7.37** −14.95* −3.59 (1.14) (1.94) (1.78) (1.13) (2.15) (2.01) (2.87) (7.28) (7.75) P-value joint test 0.24 0.00*** 0.00*** 0.00*** 0.03** 0.03** 229 230 Table 5.2 Financial Globalization and Financial Development in Emerging Markets and LAC, 1990–2007 (continued) EM EM EM+other EM+other EM EM EM+other External Internal Group of countries EM EM LACs EM EM LACs BE FE LACs GMM GMM Type of estimation BE FE FE BE FE FE (equity (equity FE (equity (equity Variables (FG) (FG) (FG) (FG) liabilities) liabilities) marcap) marcap) Observations 326 326 375 326 326 375 326 326 342 323 323 Countries 27 27 32 27 27 32 27 27 30 27 27 R-squared within 0.55 0.58 0.57 0.59 0.58 0.58 0.74 0.54 0.47 Note: Robust standard errors in parentheses. BE = between estimation; FE = fixed-effects estimation. All variables are in log terms except KA openness (capital account openness). All variables are lagged one period except for the foreign exchange variables. All estimations include time dummies. Joint test is FD_1 = FD_2=0. GMM = dynamic GMM estimation, and in parentheses is the type of instruments used. External instruments is the regional (EM) stock of the financial globalization (FG) variable excluding the corresponding country. *, **, and *** indicate significance at the 10 percent, 5 percent, and 1 percent level, respectively. LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean; EM = emerging markets; GDP = gross domestic product; FG = financial globalization; PPP = purchasing power parity; GMM = generalized method of moments; marcap = market capitalization. financial globalization in latin america 231 As noted, the strong relationship between financial globalization and financial domestic development comes with a severe endogeneity problem: foreign flows to equity and local debt markets, by definition, add to these markets’ liquidity and depth. Is it the domestic market depth that draws foreign inflows, or is it instead the foreign inflows that foster the deepening of domestic markets? The connection between financial globalization and domestic financial markets has been noted by Rajan and Zingales (2003), who emphasize the impact of financial globalization and trade liberalization on the size of the domestic financial sector. In the same direction, the dynamic Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimates with internal instruments of Baltagi, Demetriades, and Law (2009) suggest that both financial globalization and trade openness cause greater financial development (measured separately as private credit and local stock market capitalization). This causality problem is best approached by looking at foreign liabilities and the domestic depth of the equity market.10 In line with Baltagi, Demetriades, and Law (2009), we estimate a GMM, albeit with a few changes. We focus on the more homogeneous emerging-markets group and compute, for each country-year, equity averages excluding its own ratio, as an external instrument. We do this under the assumption that financial globalization, highly correlated across emerging markets (the median correlation between individual equity liability holdings and their emerging-market group aggregates is 0.86), can affect financial development only in the host country.11 The results indicate that equity inflows, indeed, appear to foster the deepening of the equity market (table 5.2, columns 10 and 11). What can we conclude from this preliminary evidence? While foreign capital does seem to flow to larger, deeper markets, there is at least some indicative evidence that it also has contributed to developing the corresponding local market. For example, growing foreign holdings of emerging-market equity (rather than broader measures of financial globalization) led to growing equity markets in developing countries. Ultimately, in this regard, foreign capital is not different from domestic capital: it is attracted to liquidity in the marketplace, and it attracts liquidity in the marketplace. Financial Globalization and International Risk Sharing In past theoretical research studies, the implications of financial integration and macroeconomic volatility were clear: countries with greater financial globalization should reduce consumption relative to output volatility through international risk sharing. In theory, one of the most important benefits of financial globalization comes by allowing more efficient international risk sharing in a country. As stated in the literature, more efficient international risk sharing may help 232 emerging issues in financial development reduce consumption volatility. Standard theoretical open-economy models yield clear testable implications for the role of financial integration in risk sharing: the further the country is from financial autarky, the lower the correlation is between consumption and domestic output, and the greater the correlation is of consumption across (financially integrated) countries. Furthermore, models with complete markets predict that the correlation of the growth of consumption with the growth of world output (or, equivalently, world consumption) would be higher than that with domestic output. Recent empirical studies have failed to validate this premise. Kose, Prasad, and Terrones (2007) analyze output and consumption growth rates and their volatilities for the period 1960–2004 and find little evidence of a beneficial effect from financial globalization on international risk sharing (as captured by a smoothing out of output changes in the consumption pattern, once common global shocks are filtered out). In particular, following a standard risk-sharing measure they measure risk sharing as the consumption betas estimated from Δlog(cit) − Δlog(Ct) = α + β(Δlog(yit) − Δlog(Yit)) + εit, (5.1) where cit(yit) is country i’s purchasing-power-parity (PPP)-adjusted per capita consumption to GDP ratio and Ct(Yit) is the world’s per capita consumption to GDP ratio.12 Ct and Yit are, respectively, measures of aggregate (common) movements in consumption and output. Since it is not possible to share the risk associated with common fluctuations, the common component of each variable is subtracted from the corresponding national variable. The difference between the national and the common world component of each variable captures the idiosyncratic (country- specific) fluctuations in that variable. In this specification, under complete markets and perfect international risk sharing, the left-hand side of the equation should be zero. In turn, to assess the influence of financial globalization on international risk, they estimate Δlog(cit) − Δlog(Ct) = α + μ(Δlog(yit) − Δlog(Yit)) + λFGi(Δlog(yit) − Δlog(Yit)) + εit, (5.2) where FGi is a measure of the country’s financial globalization over the period, and the degree of risk sharing is measured by (1 − μ − λFG), where a negative λ would indicate higher risk sharing for higher financial globalization. The study focuses on three measures of financial integration—gross holdings (the sum of foreign assets and liability holdings), assets holdings, and liability holdings—and finds that financial globalization improves risk sharing only for the late period (1987–2004), the one most closely associated with an advance in financial globalization, and only for advanced economies.13 financial globalization in latin america 233 The data do not support these premises. The figures shown in table 5.3 indicate that consumption volatility generally exceeds that of output. Moreover, the same figures suggest that, for more financially integrated economies, the volatility of consumption growth relative to that of output has increased in past decades, while it has decreased for less financially integrated economies. At first glance, the data indicate that this pattern has continued to prevail and that LAC economies are no exception. Table 5.3 presents descriptive statistics of growth and consumption volatility for 1995–2007 (and the subperiod 2000–07), across our selected country groups, which indicate that, in recent years, output volatility and economic growth seem Table 5.3 Economic Growth and Volatility (group median) Full sample Late period 1995–2007 2000–07 Volatility Y Volatility C Ratio Volatility Y Volatility C Ratio Full 2.05 2.32 1.13 1.57 1.85 1.18 sample (1.72) (2.36) (1.55) (2.20) AM 1.20 1.10 0.92 1.23 1.00 0.81 (0.46) (0.77) (0.38) (0.91) EM 3.21 4.30 1.34 1.95 2.35 1.21 (1.78) (2.22) (2.00) (2.48) FM 2.11 3.53 1.67 1.97 3.11 1.58 (1.27) (2.29) (0.59) (1.93) LAC7 3.23 3.36 1.04 2.13 2.18 1.03 (1.76) (2.16) (2.72) (3.16) MFI 2.88 4.66 1.62 1.70 2.96 1.74 (1.82) (2.43) (2.37) (2.74) LFI 2.20 3.36 1.53 2.05 2.12 1.03 (1.65) (1.98) (0.86) (1.86) Sources: WDI; World Bank data; Lane and Milesi-Ferretti 2008. Note: More financially integrated (MFI) economies are economies that are above our median sample for financial openness (as measured by the stock sum of foreign assets and liabilities) but are not part of the advanced markets (AM) group. The same applies for less financially integrated economies (LFI) but for economies that are below our median sample value for financial openness. Full sample is 1995–2007, and the late period is 2000–07. Standard errors appear in parenthesies. EM = emerging markets; FM = frontier markets. 234 emerging issues in financial development to have moved hand in hand. Emerging markets exhibit the highest output volatility, advanced economies the lowest, and frontier markets lie in between. Interestingly, growth volatilities in LAC7 are comparable to those of emerging markets, but consumption volatilities range much lower. Overall, the ratio of consumption to growth volatility ranks according to priors: the lower for presumably more financially integrated advanced markets, followed by emerging markets and frontier markets. However, when, following Kose, Otrok, and Prasad (2006), we divide the developing group (emerging markets plus frontier markets) into more financially integrated economies and less financially integrated economies (according to whether the ratio of financial globalization to GDP lies above or below the sample median), the link is much less clear: in contrast with less financially integrated economies, more financially integrated economies do not appear to have benefited from smoother consumption volatility, despite the marked decline in growth volatility.14 Figure 5.6a offers another glance at the same evidence: the country- specific sensitivity of consumption to output growth (relative to global values), estimated based on annual data, appears to have remained stubbornly close to 1 in the past two decades. To measure the impact of financial globalization on risk sharing in LAC more rigorously, we proceed in two steps. We first estimate, for the period 1995–2007, “consumption betas” country by country using equation (5.1). Next, we run a regression of estimated betas on alternative measures of financial globalization.15 The standard financial globalization proxy appears negatively correlated with betas for the whole sample (figure 5.6b), but the link is not significant (and changes sign for emerging markets). Interestingly, LAC countries appear closer to the pattern of advanced markets.16 Why this disappointing result? Kose, Prasad, and Terrones (2007) address and discard a number of potential explanations (measurement errors, country characteristics, composition of financial globalization), to propose two hypotheses: (a) a threshold effect, namely, the idea that countries need to achieve a minimum degree of integration to reap the diversification benefits (a proposition prompted by the better results they find for advanced markets); and (b) the procyclicality of capital flows in emerging markets, which in principle may offset the risk-sharing benefits of financial globalization. While the first hypothesis is virtually impossible to verify, a casual look at the data suggests that a simple threshold cannot explain the whole story. The fact that emerging economies today exhibit levels of financial globalization comparable to those exhibited by advanced markets in the past begs the question, Do developing countries with advanced market– level financial globalization have a better risk-sharing pattern? Figure 5.6c shows consumption and GDP growth pairs within the developing group for the period 1995–2007, broken into high and low financial Figure 5.6 Consumption Smoothing and Financial Globalization a. Consumption betas 25 y = 0.9084x –0.1973 20 R² = 0.6616 15 Median FG =1.03 y = 1.064x + 0.0445 10 R² = 0.6204 5 Median FG = 1.27 0 –5 C_(i)-C_(world) –10 –15 –20 –25 –20 –15 –10 –5 0 5 10 15 Y_(i)-Y_(world) 1995–2000 2001–07 (continued next page) 235 236 Figure 5.6 (continued) b. Consumption betas and financial globalization 3.0 y = –0.0998x + 1.0263 2.5 (***) R² = 0.0888 2.0 y = 0.253x + 0.787 R² = 0.054 1.5 y = –0.112x + 1.237 R² = 0.025 1.0 Consumption betas 0.5 0 –0.5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total foreign assets+total foreign liabilities All countries Emerging markets LAC (continued next page) Figure 5.6 (continued) c. Consumption betas in nonadvanced markets 25 y = 1.023x – 0.165 20 R² = 0.680 15 y = 0.886x + 0.113 10 R² = 0.436 5 0 –5 –10 C(i)–C(world) –15 –20 –25 –30 –20 –15 –10 –5 0 5 10 15 Y(i)–Y (world) High financial globalization Low financial globalization Source: WDI; Lane and Milesi-Ferretti 2008. Note: 5.6a shows a scatterplot of consumption and output growth during 1995–2000 and 2001–2007. X_(i)-X_(World) refers to the domestic variable minus the world variable. C and Y represent consumption and output growth per capita. Financial globalization is determined by economies above the median sample of the ratio of foreign assets and liabilities to GDP. 5.6b presents a scatterplot of consumption betas as measured by the slope of C_(i)-C_(World) to Y_(i)-Y_(World) vs FG/GDP. 5.6c shows a scatterplot of consumption and output growth dividing the sample into high and low financial globalization, determined by the lower bound of financial globalization in advanced markets. If the country is above the lower bound, it belongs to the high financial globalization group.The sample in 5.6c excludes advanced markets. Financial globalization is sum of total assets and liabilities from LMF over gross domestic product. 237 *** denotes significance at the 1 percent level. FG = financial globalization; LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean; EM = emerging market. 238 emerging issues in financial development globalization, according to whether the level of financial globalization of a given pair lies within the range of advanced markets for the same period. As can be seen, the results, if anything, contradict the hypothesis: high financial globalization pairs display higher consumption betas. The second hypothesis is also hard to substantiate in the data. For starters, the diversification benefits of financial globalization as measured in the literature (in terms of international portfolio diversification) should in principle work through a decoupling of residents’ income from the domestic economic cycle. By borrowing and investing abroad, residents benefit from income from their foreign assets that is uncorrelated with the domestic cycle, while sharing the ups and downs of the domestic cycle with foreign lenders. In this light, the procyclicality of capital flows should a priori have little to do with risk sharing and consumption smoothing: indeed, to the extent that capital flows have a stronger impact on GDP growth than on the consumption pattern, they should increase “measured” risk sharing. Moreover, as Kose and coauthors suggest, the recent shift away from procyclical fixed-income securities (most notably, bonded debt) to variable-income vehicles (FDI and equity flows) should have mitigated capital flow procyclicality in the recent period, which is at odds with the persistently high consumption betas found in recent data (figure 5.6a). Therefore, we highlight two alternative reasons that, we believe, may explain why higher financial globalization does not lead to a smoother consumption pattern. The first one is related, again, to measurement considerations. If consumption smoothing is the result of a diversified portfolio, the standard financial globalization measure may not be the best gauge. The discussion of the price effect in equity markets is a good illustration of the limits of financial globalization over GDP as a proxy for portfolio diversification: as equity prices rise, the share of foreign equity over GDP also rises, regardless of whether the foreign share of the residents’ equity portfolio changes. Thus, we may be seeing increased diversification when there is none. More generally, by looking only at the standard proxy for financial globalization, we miss domestic assets that typically represent the largest part of residents’ wealth. While the domestic-foreign composition or physical assets are hard to estimate (due to the lack of reliable data on capital stock for most developing countries), we can measure portfolio diversification as the foreign share of the representative resident’s equity and debt security portfolio by combining Lane and Milesi-Ferretti and market capitalization figures, such that: PD (equities + debt securities) = FEA + FDA/[(FEA + equity market cap − FEL) + (FDA + total debt − FDL)], where FEA and FEL (FDA and FDL) are foreign equity (debt) assets and liabilities. financial globalization in latin america 239 This new measure has two advantages for our purposes: it tells us the degree of portfolio diversification and tracks its evolution over time, filtering out time trends such as equity price cycles. Figure 5.7a illustrates the first aspect: note the stark contrast between advanced economies and the rest. If financial globalization leads to risk sharing, the degree of portfolio diversification in the developing world appears at first sight to be too low to have a meaningful impact. LAC6 scores slightly higher than the average emerging market—perhaps because of the characteristic offshoring of local savings due to sovereign risk (see Levy-Yeyati 2007)— but still well short of advanced markets. Moreover, despite the increase in financial globalization, both in emerging markets and in LAC6, portfolio diversification has been declining over time (perhaps the reflection of local market development and the undoing of offshoring).17 At any rate, both the limited diversification and the lack of time correlation between standard measures of financial globalization and the external domestic composition of residents’ portfolios could explain why financial globalization has not been accompanied by a better global risk-sharing pattern. Reassuringly, substituting this new measure (portfolio diversification) for the standard measure of financial globalization in figure 5.8, we obtain a better fit and a negative slope for emerging markets, although the result is still not significant, possibly because of the limited range of portfolio diversification exhibited by the group (figure 5.7b). Now LAC seems to be in line with emerging markets, with portfolio diversification displaying only a very weak correlation with consumption betas. While the use of portfolio diversification brings the analysis conceptually closer to a risk-sharing test and the data empirically closer to the expected negative correlation between globalization and risk sharing, the actual result is still far from the theoretical result. This should not be surprising, given the rather low degree of diversification in the developing world. Moreover, the menu of financial assets in middle to- low-income countries is often limited and accessible only to a small population of high-income households. What if financial assets were made available to the middle class with savings capacity, the class often associated with more advanced economies? And why is risk sharing so limited in the developed world where financial sophistication and access should not be such a problem? An additional reason why the global diversification of financial portfolios does not immediately translate into smoother (less cyclical) consumption patterns, independent of portfolio composition and financial access, lies in the fact that financial assets tend to move very close to each other, particularly during extreme events. In other words, the international diversification margin may have been declining along with a steady process of financial recoupling—a subject to which we turn next. 240 Figure 5.7 Portfolio Diversification and Risk Sharing in Selected Countries and Economies, 1999 and 2007 a. Portfolio diversification 40 35 30 25 20 Percent 15 10 5 0 PCE Emerging LAC6 markets Economies 1999 2007 (continued next page) Figure 5.7 (continued) b. Portfolio diversification and risk sharing 3.0 y = –1.5858x + 1.0569 (***) 2.5 R² = 0.2136 y = –0.946x + 1.161 2.0 R² = 0.031 1.5 1.0 Consumption betas 0.5 0 –0.5 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 Total portfolio diversification All countries Emerging markets LAC6 Source: Lane and Milesi-Ferretti 2008; WDI; BIS. Note: 5.7b presents a scatterplot of consumption betas as measured by the slope of C_(i)-C_(World) to Y_(i)- Y_(World) vs. portfolio diversification. Portfolio diversification is measured as (FEA+FDA)/(NFEA+NFDA+Mcap+Total Debt). FEA = foreign equity assets; FDA = foreign debt assets; NFEA is net foreign equity assets; NFDA is net foreign debt assets. 241 *** denotes significance at the 1 percent level. 242 Figure 5.8 Equity Flows from Global Funds in Selected Regions and Countries, 2005–09 a. Principal components for Asia and LAC 5 4 3 2 1 0 Percent –1 –2 –3 –4 05 05 05 06 06 06 07 07 07 08 08 08 09 09 09 -05 -06 -07 -08 1-1- 4-1- 7-1- 1-1- 4-1- 7-1- 1-1- 4-1- 7-1- 1-1- 4-1- 7-1- 1-1- 4-1- 7-1- 10-1 10-1 10-1 10-1 Year Principal component 1, Asia Principal component 1, Latin America (continued next page) Figure 5.8 (continued) b. Percentage of global fund flows explained by the principal component 84 82 80 78 76 Percent 74 72 70 68 a ia s ts ic As er ke er th ar O m Am ng tin gi La er Em Year % Explained by PC1 (continued next page) 243 244 Figure 5.8 (continued) c. Country weights from the principal component analysis 18 16 14 12 10 8 Percent 6 4 2 0 a il le ia o ru B a ia ia p. ia s a d ic p. ry el d ia n a y ntin raz Chi mb xic Pe , R hin Ind es Re las ine hin ilan ubl Re ga sra lan an atio fric rke B o e a n , a p C a p n I Po m er A Tu ge ol M el C do a M hilip n, Th Re rab Hu o Ar C e zu In ore P a h A R ed uth n K i w , F So T a z e c pt an Ve si C Egy u s R Latam Asia Others Source: Authors’ calculations based on EPFR Global. Note: 5.8a indicates the ratio of global fund flows over assets under management (AUM) (the latter lagged one period). The series are created from the weights of the first principal component for each region. 5.8b shows the percentage of flows’ variance for each group explained by its first principal component. 5.8c indicates the weights from the first principal component of the AUM flows/AUM stocks ratio (computed separately for each region). PC1 = first principal component. financial globalization in latin america 245 Financial Globalization and Asset Market Comovement: A Decade of Financial Recoupling The debate on real decoupling in emerging markets—the comovement of national and global output cycles—has been receiving increasing attention in the literature. While there are arguments that favor the view that emerging economies have decoupled from industrial or advanced countries (see, for instance, Kose, Otrok, and Prasad 2008), others have argued that the decoupling evidence is not so robust (Rose 2009 or Wälti 2009, for example). An alternative account emphasizes that emerging markets have decoupled from core economies as a result of their strengthening ties with China, particularly in commodity-exporting LAC7 (Levy-Yeyati and Williams 2011). However, the idea that this real decoupling, founded in a newly gained policy autonomy and macroeconomic resilience to external shocks, has enhanced the importance of a country’s fundamentals as drivers of asset performance at the expense of global factors is a common misperception. Indeed, the degree of comovement of asset prices in emerging markets (estimated as the share of time variability explained by the first principal component, PC1) is considerable and has been growing over time (even before the 2008–09 sell-off) (figure 5.9a).18 In turn, PC1 is highly correlated with global asset returns, as captured by the S&P 500 and the Morgan Figure 5.9 Financial Recoupling a. Equity, foreign exchange, credit default swaps, and spread variability as a function of first principal component: Average R2 from country regressions 100 90 80 70 Average R2 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Equity Foreign exchange Spreads Early (2000–05) Late (Jan. 05 – July 08) Crisis (Aug. 08 – Apr. 09) (continued next page) 246 emerging issues in financial development Figure 5.9 (continued) b. Equity betas to the S&P 500 2.0 Brazil 1.5 Late 1.0 Israel 0.5 Venezuela 0.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 Early c. Credit betas to high-yield corporate spreads 2.5 2.0 1.5 Late Sweden Brazil 1.0 Turkey 0.5 0 –0.5 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 Early (continued next page) financial globalization in latin america 247 Figure 5.9 (continued) d. Currency betas to the DXY 2.0 1.5 Late 1.0 0.5 Argentina 0 –0.5 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 Early Source: Authors’ calculations based on Bloomberg Data. Note: 5.9a reports the average R-squared of the following regressions: country- specific equity, foreign exchange returns and sovereign credit spreads versus time series for the first principal component. The time series for the first principal component are computed by taking a weighted average of the changes in the country-specific equity, foreign exchange returns and sovereign credit spreads, where the weight for country i equals the i-principal component weight divided by the sum of all the principal component weights. 5.9b reports, for emerging countries, the median betas from the following regressions: MSCI vs. S&P, EMBI vs. HYM, and FX vs. DXY. These are based on monthly data: Early period (January 2000– December 2004); late period (January 2005–December 2009). MSCI = Morgan Stanley Capital International; EMBI = Emerging Markets Bond Index; HYM = high yield us corporate index; FX = foreign exchange; DXY = U.S. dollar index. Stanley Capital International (MSCI) equity indexes and the spread on high-yield U.S. corporate debt (see table 5.4), indicating that most of the comovement displayed by emerging-market assets comes from global influences or globally synchronized shocks. Finally, it is easy to show that emerging-market equity and credit default swaps (as well as exchange rates betas to the relevant global risk factors) have mostly increased in the second half of the 2000s (figure 5.9a).19 That this comovement is directly related to financial globalization (specifically, cross-border flows) is readily seen in figure 5.9a, where we plot the first principal component of global fund flows to the two main emerging regions (Latin America and Asia) to show how they closely mimic 248 emerging issues in financial development Table 5.4 Correlations: First Principal Component versus Global Indexes, 2000–09 S&P MSCI Developed HY PCE - Equity 2000 – 2009 0.84 0.94 −0.69 2000 – 2004 0.83 0.92 −0.62 2005 – 2009 0.87 0.96 −0.73 EM - Equity 2000 – 2009 0.79 0.85 −0.65 2000 – 2004 0.73 0.76 −0.65 2005 – 2009 0.84 0.91 −0.66 EM-CDS 2000 – 2009 −0.66 −0.70 0.75 2000 – 2004 −0.62 −0.65 0.59 2005 – 2009 −0.73 −0.76 0.79 LAC6 - Equity 2000 – 2009 0.67 0.75 −0.61 2000 – 2004 0.56 0.60 −0.55 2005 – 2009 0.77 0.85 −0.66 LAC6 - CDS 2000 – 2009 −0.72 −0.74 0.71 2000 – 2004 −0.63 −0.63 0.59 2005 – 2009 −0.77 −0.78 0.76 Source: Bloomberg. Note: This table reports the correlation of global index vs. the first principal component. The time series for the first principal component is computed by taking a weighted average of the changes in the country-specific equity and sovereign credit spreads, where the weight for country i equals the i-the principal component weight divided by the sum of all the principal component weights. Hy = high yield us corporate index; CDS = credit default swaps. each other. Moreover, the first principal component explains roughly 80 percent of the monthly variability of global fund flows (figure 5.9b), and its link with individual countries is remarkably even across the board (figure 5.9c), which shows that PC1 is roughly similar to a simple average of individual changes. All of this clearly indicates that global fund flows are governed by common factors rather than by local idiosyncratic aspects—a simple reflection of the benchmarked nature of most of these funds and the flipside of similar findings for price performance as illustrated in table 5.4 and figure 5.9c. financial globalization in latin america 249 The resemblance between asset price and flow comovements suggests that cross-border flows may explain at least part of the recent financial recoupling. In principle, stable to higher betas could be seen as the natural consequence of financial globalization, to the extent that the latter tends to increase the global nature of emerging markets’ investor base, thereby making it more homogeneous. As global investors diversify into emerging- market assets, the importance of global factors coming from the developed world should increase accordingly. To explore this hypothesis, we focus on cross-border equity flows, in principle the ones that should reflect economic performance (hence, real decoupling) more closely and where the real contrast between financial decoupling and financial recoupling is more puzzling. Did financial globalization indeed play a role? More generally, does foreign participation, measured as foreign holdings over local market capitalization, increase the market betas to global asset returns? Does financial globalization amplify the response of cross-border flows and asset prices to global shocks in times of global turmoil? Here, the findings are mixed. Although, in principle, there appears to be a significant link between U.S. residents’ equity holdings and equity betas around the date of Lehman Brothers’ collapse (Didier, Love, and Martínez Pería 2010), a closer look reveals that this finding is entirely accounted for by the frontier markets group (table 5.5), which, curiously enough, appears to be sensitive to global equity shocks while its more financially globalized peers do not (columns 2–4), directly contradicting this hypothesis. Alternative specifications using countries’ MSCI instead of the local stock market index reveal a larger equity beta to the S&P (not surprisingly, given that the MSCI comprises stocks under the global investors’ radar) but also fail to find a role for financial globalization (column 4). Similarly, no association is found when using the Lane and Milesi-Ferretti (2007) version of the ratio of financial globalization to GDP (column 5). Not all results are negative, however: the sensitivity to global shocks increases significantly with the presence of global equity funds, both captured by the absolute value of fund flows (recall that we are trying to proxy the intensity of cross-border flows, not their direction) and by assets under management, although the S&P coefficient remains large and close to 1. A quick look at the differential response to positive and negative shocks during the late period (table 5.5, columns 10 and 11) reveals that the incidence of global fund flows is restricted to the sell-offs, in line with the view that, in the event of a liquidity crunch (such as the post–Lehman Brothers’ panic), benchmarked global funds tend to liquidate everywhere in proportion to the market’s index weight and regardless of the country’s fundamentals. Are these large fund flows in bad months the endogenous result of a rush to the exit in the midst of a crisis? To control for this potential reverse causality (that is, the hypothesis that global funds pull out faster from countries with bigger price declines), we replicate the Table 5.5 Comparison of Two Studies on Financial Recoupling and Financial Globalization 250 Didier et al. 2010 Levy-Yeyati 2010, Crisis period All Country group countries AM EM FM EM EM EM EM EM Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 U.S. equity U.S. equity U.S. equity U.S. equity U.S. equity LMF equity FG variable holdings holdings holdings holdings holdings liabilities Fund flows Fund AUM Fund flows SPX*U.S. holdings 0.01*** -0.01 0.00 0.04** 0.00 0.00 2.64*** 0.03* 2.33*** (0.09) (0.40) (0.86) (0.03) (0.59) (0.35) (0.00) (0.10) (0.00) SPX 0.85 1.12*** 1.07*** 0.75*** 1.49*** 1.27*** 1.11*** 1.21*** 1.17*** 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 (0.00) FG proxy −6.47 8.24*** (0.20) (0.00) R-squared 0.35 0.69 0.49 0.27 0.58 0.58 0.62 0.59 0.54 Observations 1,628 308 374 858 408 408 323 408 935 Time dummies No No No No No No No No No Countries 74 14 17 39 17 17 17 17 17 Table 5.5 Comparison of Two Studies on Financial Recoupling and Financial Globalization (continued) Levy-Yeyati (2010), late period Levy-Yeyati (2010), late period, GMM Country group EM EM EM EM EM EM EM EM Variable 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Fund flows Fund flows Fund flows Fund flows (Positive (Negative (Positive (Negative FG variable Fund AUM Fund flows Fund AUM S&P) S&P) Fund flows S&P) S&P) SPX*U.S. holdings 0.03* 2.46*** −0.02 0.06 3.35*** 4.43*** 2.13 3.87*** (0.10) (0.00) (0.38) (0.95) (0.00) (0.00) (0.15) (0.00) SPX*U.S. −0.42 0.05 holdings*LAC6 (0.63) (0.18) SPX 1.33*** 1.17*** 1.65*** 1.46*** 1.14*** 0.87*** 1.00*** 0.88*** (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) SPX*LAC6 0.00 −0.33 (0.98) (0.18) FG proxy 8.36*** 13.74*** 12.06 9.69*** 10.35*** 24.06*** (0.00) (0.00) (0.10) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) 251 252 Table 5.5 Comparison of Two Studies on Financial Recoupling and Financial Globalization (continued) Levy-Yeyati (2010), late period Levy-Yeyati (2010), late period, GMM Country group EM EM EM EM EM EM EM EM Variable 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Fund flows Fund flows Fund flows Fund flows (Positive (Negative (Positive (Negative FG variable Fund AUM Fund flows Fund AUM S&P) S&P) Fund flows S&P) S&P) R-squared 0.50 0.54 0.50 0.30 0.48 Observations 1020 935 1020 544 391 935 544 391 Time dummies No No No No No No No No Countries 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 Note: This table presents estimations on the effect of financial globalization on financial recoupling. The first four columns follow Didier Love, and Martínez Pería (2010). The returns are normal local returns, filtered out of outliers, and U.S. holdings are normalized by substracting its sample average and dividing by its sample standard deviation. The crisis period is defined as June 2007 to April 2009 as opposed to the 2008–2009 crisis period used in this paper. From columns 5 to 17, stock data are from MSCI country indexes,and FG variables are not normalized. Fund flows are in absolute value. GMM indicates Arellano Bond in-difference estimator using lagged gund AUM as instruments. p-values are in parenthesis. *, **, *** denote significance at the 1 percent, 5 percent, and 10 percent levels, respectively. AM = advanced markets; EM = emerging markets, FM = frontier markets; FG = financial globalization; AUM = assets under management; GMM = generalized method of moments; SPX = S8P500. Source: Bloomberg; Barclays Capital; TIC; LMF. financial globalization in latin america 253 estimation using GMM techniques and instrumenting equity fund flows using, as before, flows associated with the remaining emerging markets in the sample. Results remain unaltered. Thus, global fund activity appears to amplify the asset price response to a sell-off in the S&P 500 (or, alternatively, an adverse global shock such as a peak in risk aversion or a liquidity crunch), although it does not fully explain the roughly one-to-one response of emerging-market equity prices to global shocks. Whether the unexplained part of the comovement is related to some measurement problem or some missing explanatory factor, the global comovement of asset prices remains an interesting puzzle in need of further research. Financial Globalization and Global Event Risk: The Test of the Global Financial Crisis If the benefits of financial globalization for international risk sharing and output and consumption smoothing are, at best, elusive, what about the tail risks of a global systemic shock? Does financial globalization amplify the adverse impact of generalized external shocks in a situation in which no risk sharing is available? Do external crises propagate more when the domestic economy is financially linked with the crisis epicenter? The 2008 global financial crisis offers a perfect event for evaluating this question empirically. A good starting point is provided by Didier, Hevia, and Schmukler (2011), who analyze both the correlation between the growth collapse and the subsequent recovery in different countries and a few variables, including financial globalization proxies. Based on a definition of growth collapse as the 2009–07 growth differential, they find that middle-income countries fared only marginally better than high- income ones against what seems to be the conventional view in some quarters. We reproduce this exercise in figure 5.10a, where we also add our four country groups (advanced markets, emerging markets, LAC7, and other LAC countries). Interestingly, our emerging-market sample—which differs significantly from the middle-income group, in particular because of their higher degree of financial globalization—appears to have done slightly worse than advanced markets in the collapse of growth. The LAC universe is no exception: LAC7 contracted by less than manufactures- exporting emerging Asian economies or currency-imbalanced emerging Europe but by more than other, less financially integrated LAC countries. Moreover, figure 5.10b gives an interesting first glimpse, showing that the collapse in growth, both in emerging markets and particularly in advanced markets, seems to be negatively associated with financial globalization (greater globalization being associated with sharper drops in the growth rate). But a closer look at the evidence for LAC, which shows a positive but ultimately insignificant correlation, warns against the easy interpretation of financial globalization as a source of global exposure. 254 Figure 5.10 The Global Financial Crisis, the Collapse in Growth, and Financial Globalization, LAC and Selected Economies a. Growth and the collapse of growth around the global financial crisis 6 4 2 0 –2 –4 Percent –6 –8 –10 –12 e e e ts ts 7 s m m m ke ke C AC co co co ar ar LA L in in in m m er h e w g th ig dl Lo ced in O H id g M an er A dv Em Economies Growth 2009 Growth collapse (continued next page) Figure 5.10 (continued) b. The global financial crisis and financial globalization 0 –5 –10 –15 y = –0.2881x – 5.187 (***) –20 R² = 0.3076 Growth collapse y = –3.1164x –5.0112 (*) –25 R² = 0.0943 y = 1.187x – 7.491 R² = 0.041 –30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Total foreign assets + total foreign liabilities/GDP Advanced markets Emerging markets LAC Sources: WDI; WEO IMF; Lane and Milesi-Ferretti 2008. Note: Growth collapse is measured as 2009 growth minus 2007 growth. Income classification is from World Bank’s July 2010 classification. In our sample (AM, EM, FM), growth collapse is measured as growth in 2009 minus the average growth rate in the 2003–07 period. Figure 5.10b presents a scatterplot of growth collapse versus financial globalization. Growth collapse is measured as growth in 2009 minus average growth in 2003–07. LAC is LAC6+Other LACs. GDP = gross national product; AM = advanced markets; EM = emerging 255 markets; LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean. 256 emerging issues in financial development Is the relatively light debt liability position of LAC countries the reason behind the difference between LAC and the rest? Because the differential sensitivity to the global shock could be attributed to many factors other than financial globalization, for a more formal analysis along these lines, we build on Didier, Hevia, and Schmukler’s (2011) cross-section regressions of growth collapses on financial integration (table 5.6). Results are rather mixed—not surprisingly, given the simultaneous, hard-to-identify effects of the many events that characterized the crisis period. The emerging-markets dummy appears negative (in line with figure 5.10a), and so does the standard financial globalization proxy, but significance is poor to nonexistent. It is the stock of foreign liabilities, particularly debt, however, that is associated with a harder collapse, whereas FDI appears to exert a benign influence during the crisis (particularly for advanced economies). While any conclusion from a test based on a cross-section of observations corresponding to a period populated with so many simultaneous systemic shocks must be viewed with caution, it appears that financial globalization played no systematic role in the output response to the global crisis beyond its correlation with the hard currency liquidity needs of liquidity-constrained, heavily indebted countries. Taking Stock: From Positive to Normative Perhaps the main takeaway from the previous empirical examination of financial globalization is its most pedestrian finding: for all the academic and media coverage that the concept has received in recent years, financial globalization in the developing world appears to have been vastly overstated. Rather than growing in the 1990s and 2000s as usually argued based on standard GDP ratios, de facto globalization has accompanied (and, to some extent, supported) a more secular process of financial deepening (in emerging markets and elsewhere), temporarily slowed down by the recent global crisis. In other words, once measured in a way that minimizes the various biases that plagued the most popular empirical proxies, financial globalization looks rather stable and well below advanced country levels. This finding is critical to an agenda that often investigates the causes and consequences of financial globalization, starting from the false premise that financial globalization has actually strengthened over the years. Instead, the globalization process during the 1990s (which almost defined emerging markets as a financial concept) came to a halt in the 2000s. This is particularly so for the specific case of LAC7, where financial globalization levels lag those in their emerging peers and have fallen in the 2000s, reflecting in part the sovereign deleveraging trend in the region. Table 5.6 Financial Globalization and the Global Financial Crisis Emerging Emerging Emerging All countries’ All countries’ markets’ markets’ markets’ EM+other growth growth growth growth growth LACs’ growth Variables collapse collapse collapse collapse collapse collapse Emerging markets −1.76 −3.22* (1.29) (1.64) FM 1.25 −0.22 (1.13) (1.56) Trade −0.04** −0.04* −0.01 −0.01 −0.03 −0.02 (0.02) (0.02) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.04) Financial globalization −0.37 −3.34 (0.33) (2.78) FG assets 6.34 1.74 −0.96 (4.73) (4.94) (5.11) FG liabilities −10.67** (5.17) Equity liabilities 5.40 11.73 (10.80) (12.36) 257 Table 5.6 Financial Globalization and the Global Financial Crisis (continued) 258 Emerging Emerging Emerging All countries’ All countries’ markets’ markets’ markets’ EM+other growth growth growth growth growth LACs’ growth Variables collapse collapse collapse collapse collapse collapse FDI liabilities 5.13 4.13 (4.99) (5.59) Debt liabilities −19.93*** −15.44*** (3.43) (4.88) Debt liabilities*LAC7 0.47 (9.11) Debt liabilities*other LACs 0.86 (14.90) Constant −3.10** −1.72 −2.14 −1.86 −1.77 −3.00 (1.36) (1.49) (2.92) (3.20) (2.47) (3.93) Observations 72 72 29 29 29 32 R-squared 0.14 0.15 0.15 0.25 0.51 0.44 Note: This table presents estimations on the relationship of growth collapse and financial globalization during the global financial crisis. Robust standard errors are in parentheses. All financial globalization variables are normalized by GDP. Emerging markets and frontier markets are dummies indicating country group. *, **, and *** denote significance at the 10 percent, 5 percent, and 1 percent level, respectively. EM = emerging markets; LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean; FG = financial globalization; FDI = foreign direct investment; FM = frontier markets; FG = financial globalization. financial globalization in latin america 259 Significantly, the degree of financial globalization may have been further overstated by measurement problems, because part of the offshored financial intermediation of developing-country residents is reported as foreign, both because of the domicile of the investment vehicles (for example, global funds and exchange-traded finds) and because of tax evasion (which causes residents to misreport transactions booked in financial centers). That said, it is true that the ratio of foreign liabilities to GDP has been on the rise, and the current enthusiasm for emerging markets continues to elicit overweight portfolio positions from benchmarked investors in the region, plus an increasingly active speculative turnover. All of this begs the question of whether cross-border holdings—particularly easy-to-unwind foreign portfolio liabilities—are good or bad or, more generally, whether policy makers should view them with concern. As noted, measurement limitations and the short time span of financial globalization should caution us to take any normative conclusion with a grain of salt. That said, the data examined here offer a few important policy implications and suggest issues that deserve to be addressed by additional research. Financial Globalization: Good or Bad? To the extent that financial globalization appears to play a positive role in domestic market deepening and that the latter has been a driving force in the “onshorization” of financial intermediation and the financial de-dollarization process, it can be said that financial globalization has played a supporting role in increasing the resilience of the developing world, particularly in emerging markets. Nowhere is this claim more pertinent than in the case of LAC7, a group previously plagued by currency imbalances, external dependence, and crisis propensity and today exhibiting low debt ratios and long foreign currency positions that have allowed them to exploit exchange rate flexibility in a countercyclical way. On the negative side, there is evidence that financial globalization amplified the post–Lehman Brothers’ asset sell-off (particularly through benchmarked global equity funds, although the same should apply, almost by construction, to bond funds). Similarly, the procyclical nature of portfolio inflows, which return to core markets in episodes of flight to quality (or, by arbitrage, move out of and into core markets in sync with the interest rate cycle in advanced economies) may amplify the effect of the global cycle on the emerging world in an undesirable way. A second issue concerning financial globalization and currencies can be broadly denoted as the “financial Dutch disease”20 associated with excessive capital inflows—in turn, a potential result of financial globalization. The concern about the negative consequences of procyclical capital flows—and its counterpart, cyclical appreciation followed by sharp 260 emerging issues in financial development depreciations in the downturn—has recently come to the forefront because of the fear that globalized speculative capital may channel the excess global liquidity into emerging markets, with potentially adverse consequences for exchange rate overshooting and excess volatility and, more generally, for asset inflation and bubbles. However, the procyclical nature of international portfolio capital has been a topic of debate in the emerging-market literature as early as the mid-1990s, with the capital- inflow boom in Latin America, triggered by a combination of events (the creation of the Brady bond market, global liquidity, and the first wave of reforms), a pattern that also seems to apply to a lesser extent to FDI flows.21 Not surprisingly, cross-border inflows are typically both negatively correlated with the cycle in the source country and positively correlated with the cycle in the host country. In this way, they may be seen either as speeding up the convergence toward new levels of real exchange rate equilibrium or as exacerbating short-lived deviations from them. Thus, for good or bad, to the extent that flows are positively associated with cross-border liabilities, financial globalization may strengthen this pattern. To what extent does financial globalization contribute to this concern? A priori, the positive relation between cross-border stocks and flows documented above suggests that globalized countries are likely to face larger flows in either direction, but that positive relation does not say much about how it influences the cyclical nature of these shocks. To assess that influence in a simple way, in unreported results we run a panel regression of portfolio liability and asset flows on GDP growth rates, where the latter are interacted with a financial globalization proxy (the stock of foreign liabilities and the stock of foreign assets over GDP, respectively, both the ratio and a high dummy indicating values above the sample median). We control for common contemporaneous factors (like global liquidity or risk aversion) through time dummies. The evidence is inconclusive. Inflows display a significant (albeit weak) cyclical nature, however, amplified by financial globalization, whereas the same exercise fails to yield results for the case of outflows. Too Much of a Good Thing? As highlighted in the first two chapters of this volume, for all the market and media excitement about emerging economies, Latin America displays rather modest progress on increasing its financial depth, sophistication, and variety. Capital flows in search of yields in times of poor growth and low rates at the center can easily lead to temporary exchange rate overvaluation followed by a depreciation in the periphery. This pattern— in principle a natural way of sharing the burden of the down cycle in a flexible exchange rate environment—may have deleterious effects on relatively illiquid LAC markets, particularly when capital flows weaken financial globalization in latin america 261 or revert. At any rate, the ultimate challenge remains how to foster the liquidity of domestic markets by inviting long-term inflows, while filtering noisy short-term flows. How much can monetary policy do (through financial stability considerations in interest rate decisions) to make a positive difference? There is growing consensus that a policy framework aimed at attenuating procyclical swings is much needed. Such a framework requires, however, a procedure for evaluating the persistence of the shock. Only with a clear understanding of the cyclical component of capital flows and exchange rate movements can prudential macromeasures be calibrated without risking stifling the markets unnecessarily.22 The fact that flows and exchange rates display cyclical components should be clear from the illustrations of comovements and of the correlation between common factors and global drivers documented above. But from there to estimating a target exchange rate range (more specifically, determining whether exchange rate appreciation is overshooting its fundamental level due to cyclical forces) is far more complicated, not only because the persistence of the shock cannot be easily determined but also because the multilateral real exchange rate depends on other currencies that are also subject to the same transitory shock. In turn, there seems to be a need to complement leaning-against-the- wind foreign exchange intervention with truly prudential macromeasures such as Tobin taxes, as well as other less popular and heavily studied recommendations such as reserve requirements (as the ones once imposed on banks’ dollar liabilities in heavily dollarized economies such as Peru, or the more selective type recently imposed on foreign exchange forwards in Israel) or the use of reserve requirements in lieu of interest rate hikes (as currently in Turkey), both aimed at reducing the interest rate differential perceived by foreign investors and at discouraging speculative flows. In addition, the alleged cost of sterilized intervention calls for rethinking reserve management over longer horizons (emulating sovereign wealth funds) to increase their return above and beyond the typical short U.S. Treasury. At any rate, the challenge for the region, now as it was in the mid-1990s, is to learn how to respond to foreign and local enthusiasm for domestic assets to ensure that capital comes in search of a resident permit rather than a short tourist visa. Notes 1. This section touches upon a number of issues already covered in the previ- ous chapter. The present analysis, however, expands on the one in the previous chapter and introduces alternative ways to measure financial globalization. The overlap is necessary to give the reader a more comprehensive view. 2. In what follows, and for the sake of concision, we focus primarily on equities, where betas have been more consistently high, but the results are easily generalized to currencies. 262 emerging issues in financial development 3. See appendix I in Levy-Yeyati and Williams (2011) for a detailed analysis of de jure versus de facto measures of financial globalization and alternative data sources used. 4. Non-LAC6 economies are excluded due to insufficient data on local market capitalization. 5. In addition, equity holdings in peripheral core economies (PCE) have looked relatively stable for the past 10 years and with levels that are compa- rable to those in emerging markets—which indicates that the larger financial globalization to GDP levels in PCE simply reflect the deeper markets in advanced economies. 6. Note that this is not inconsistent with LAC equities’ representing a larger share of the global portfolio: a passive (benchmarked) investor would increase the weight of LAC equities whenever the price of LAC equities grows relative to other equities. 7. For instance, Kose, Prasad, and Terrones (2007, 38) state: “There is a large body of theory suggesting that foreign ownership of banks can, in principle, gen- erate a variety of benefits. First, foreign bank participation can make a country’s access to international financial markets easier. Second, it can help improve the regulatory and supervisory frameworks of the domestic banking industry. Third, it can improve the quality of loans as the influence of the government on the financial sector should decline in more open economies. Fourth, in practice, foreign banks may introduce new financial instruments and technologies which can increase competition and improve the quality of financial services. The presence of foreign banks can also provide a safety valve when depositors become worried about the solvency of domestic banks.” 8. See appendix table A3 in Levy-Yeyati and Williams (2011) for a detailed list. Advanced markets are the 28 advanced countries used in Lane and Milesi- Ferretti (2008). All variables are lagged and included in logs, except capital account openness. 9. As Lane and Milesi-Ferretti note in their paper (2008), “The level of eco- nomic development can also be an important factor in explaining domestic resi- dents’ propensity to engage in cross-border asset trade.” We prefer to include it here more specifically as an indicator that subsumes many of the transaction costs listed above. 10. Cross-border holdings and flows could influence the depth of the bank- ing sector, albeit in a less straightforward way, to the extent that flows are largely intermediated by banks. 11. We run a parsimonious version of the previous specification, dropping trade and other financial development proxies that are generally not significant, to gain observations at a minimum loss of information. 12. Growth in world output and consumption is measured as follows: ΣΔlog (xit)*ShareAM, where xit is either real per capita consumption or output in country i (where the country belongs to the advanced markets subsample), and ShareAM is the share country i represents of advanced markets’ consumption or GDP measured by PPP current prices. 13. These results expand on previous findings by Kose, Prasad, and Terrones (2007) along the same lines, for the period 1960–95. 14. Financial globalization is measured here, as usual, as the sum of foreign assets and liabilities over GDP. 15. Note that this is similar to allowing μ to vary across countries in Kose, Prasad, and Terrones’s (2007) panel estimation—and that their risk-sharing mea- sure for country i would equal to 1−bi. 16. Using FDI holdings, or the sum of equity plus debt holdings, over GDP as financial globalization proxies yields comparable results. financial globalization in latin america 263 17. Naturally, this is simply a reflection of the stylized facts shown when dis- cussing the normalization over market cap. 18. For figure 5.8, we regress country-specific equity returns and credit default swaps spread changes on the first principal component constructed based on equity returns and spread changes for all emerging markets. Significantly, while the analy- sis in this section is based on monthly data, the comovement is also there for longer horizons. 19. Betas are estimated based on country-by-country regressions of monthly log changes in Morgan Stanley Capital International Index country equity indexes on log changes in the S&P 500, and log credit spreads on the U.S. high-yield corporate spreads, respectively. Results are similar when we use quarterly and annual changes instead. Much as in the case of real decoupling discussed above, the drawbacks of using standard correlations to estimate market interdependence have been repeat- edly highlighted in the finance literature, most notably Forbes and Rigobon (2002). 20. See http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2011/04/08-blep-cardenas. 21. See, among other, Calvo, Leiderman, and Reinhart (1994) and Levy-Yeyati (2009) on the procyclical nature of net private capital flows (including FDI) to developing countries. 22. We prefer this term to the more broadly used macroprudential measures, which is often mistaken for traditional, bank-level microprudential measures that partially internalized the presence of systemic (macroeconomic) risk, as in the recent Basel III (see Cárdenas and Levy-Yeyati 2011). References Baltagi, B. H., P. O. Demetriades, and S. H. Law. 2009. “Financial Development and Openness: Evidence from Panel Data.” Journal of Development Economics 89 (2): 285–96. Barclays Capital (database). http://etfdb.com/index/barclays-capital-us-aggregate- bond-index/. BIS (Bank for International Settlements). http://www.bis.org/statistics/. Bloomberg (database). http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/ bloomberg_0.pdf. Calvo, G. A., L. Leiderman, and C. M. Reinhart. 1994. “The Capital Inflows Problem: Concepts and Issues.” Contemporary Economic Policy 12 (3): 54–66. Cárdenas, Mauricio, Karim Foda, Camila Henao, and Eduardo Levy-Yeyati. 2011. Latin America Economic Perspectives: Shifting Gears in an Age of Heightened Expectations. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. Chinn, M., and H. Ito. 2007. “Price-Based Measurement of Financial Globalization: A Cross-Country Study of Interest Rate Parity.” Pacific Economic Review 12 (4): 419–44. ———. 2008. “A New Measure of Financial Openness.” Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis 10 (3): 309–22. Didier, Tatiana, Constantino Hevia, and Sergio L. Schmukler. 2011. “How Resilient and Countercyclical Were Emerging Economies to the Global Financial Crisis?” Policy Research Working Paper 5637, World Bank, Washington, DC. Didier, T., I. Love, and M. S. Martínez Pería. 2010. “What Explains Stock Markets’ Vulnerability to the 2007–2008 Crisis?” Policy Research Working Paper 5224, World Bank, Washington, DC. 264 emerging issues in financial development Forbes, K. J., and R. Rigobon R. 2002. “No Contagion, Only Interdependence: Measuring Stock Market Comovements.” Journal of Finance 57 (5): 2223–61. IFS (International Financial Statistics) (database). International Monetary Fund. Washington, DC. http://elibrary-data.imf.org/. Ize, A., and E. Levy-Yeyati. 2003. “Financial Dollarization.” Journal of International Economics 59 (2): 323–47. Kose, A., C. Otrok, and E. Prasad. 2006. “Financial Globalization: A Reappraisal.” CEPR Discussion Paper 5842, Centre for Economic Policy Research, London. ———. 2008. “Global Business Cycles: Convergence or Decoupling?” NBER Working Paper 14292, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA. Kose, A., E. Prasad, and M. Terrones. 2007. “How Does Financial Globalization Affect Risk Sharing? Patterns and Channels.” IMF Working Paper 07/238, International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC. Lane, P. R., and G. M. Milesi-Ferretti. 2007. “The External Wealth of Nations Mark II.” Journal of International Economics 73: 223–50. ———. 2008. “The Drivers of Financial Globalization.” American Economic Review 98 (2): 327–32. Levy-Yeyati, E. 2007. “Dollars, Debts, and the IFIs: Dedollarizing Multilateral Lending.” World Bank Economic Review 27 (1): 21–47. ———. 2009. “Optimal Debt? On the Insurance Value of International Debt Flows to Developing Countries.” Open Economies Review 20 (4): 489–507. Levy-Yeyati, E., and T. Williams. 2011. “Financial Globalization in Emerging Economies: Much Ado about Nothing?” Policy Research Working Paper 4770, World Bank, Washington, DC. ———. 2012. “Emerging Economies in the 2000s: Real Decoupling and Financial Recoupling.” Journal of International Money and Finance 31 (8): 2102–26. Rajan, R. G., and L. Zingales. 2003. “The Great Reversals: The Politics of Financial Development in the 20th Century.” CEPR Discussion Paper 2783, Centre for Economic Policy Research, London. Rose, A. 2009. “Business Cycles Become Less Synchonised over Time: Debunking ‘Decoupling.’” Vox EU. http://www.voxeu.org/article/debunking-decoupling. Treasury International Capital System Database. https://sites.google.com/site/ economicfeel/economic-indicators-1/foreign-trade/treasury-international- capital-system. Wälti, S. 2009. “The Myth of Decoupling.” Mimeo. Swiss National Bank. WDI (World Development Indicators). World Bank, Washington, DC. http://data .worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators. WEO (World Economic Outlook) (database). International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC. http://www.imf.org/external/data.htm. 6 Institutional Investors and Agency Issues in Latin American Financial Markets: Issues and Policy Options Claudio Raddatz Abstract Institutional investors have become more important in Latin America in the past 20 years. The rise of these financial intermediaries has increased the scope for agency problems in their interaction with indi- vidual investors, corporations, and regulators. This chapter describes these agency problems and discusses their relevance for Latin American countries in light of the existing data. The evidence shows that the incentive schemes used for dealing with agency problems matter for the The author works for the World Bank in the DECMG unit and for the Central Bank of Chile. e-mail: craddatz@worldbank.org. The author would like to thank Augusto de la Torre, Alain Ize, Sergio Schmukler, Ana Fernanda Maiguashca, Manuel Luy, and participants at the author’s workshop on the financial develop- ment in Latin America flagship organized by the Office of the Chief Economist of Latin America and the Caribbean for valuable comments. He is also grateful to Matias Braun, Pablo Castañeda, Heinz Rudolph, Carlos Serrano, and Fuad Velasco for useful discussions and to Alfonso Astudillo, Ana Maria Gazmuri, Carlos Alvarado, and Luis Fernando Vieira for outstanding research assistance. The views expressed in this chapter are the author’s only and do not necessarily represent those of the World Bank, its executive directors, or the countries they represent. 265 266 emerging issues in financial development asset allocation, risk taking, and portfolio maturity of institutional investors and have led them to favor low-risk and short-term assets. The source of the incentives varies across institutional investors. While pension funds respond mainly to incentives set by their regulators, mutual funds respond to the injections and redemptions of their indi- vidual investors and to a weak competitive environment. The resulting combination of structure and maturity of portfolios may entail lower returns for individual investors. This effect should be considered in the design of regulatory frameworks that trade off maintaining incentives and giving managers scope to undertake long-run arbitrage opportunities. In addition, according to the scarce available evidence, the concentrated corporate ownership of institutional investors in Latin America may give rise to problems of conflict of interest, related lending, and regulatory capture. Introduction The structure of Latin American financial markets has started to change in the past 20 years, with nonbank financial intermediaries like pension funds, mutual funds, and insurance companies playing an increasing role in credit provision and asset management and with bonds and equities becoming more prominent sources of credit for firms and means of invest- ment for households. The rise of nonbank intermediaries and their ancillary institutions (credit rating agencies, trading platforms, and the like) is increasing the complexity of Latin American financial systems. While in the past banks interacted directly with borrowers and lenders through relationship lend- ing, several institutions—including financial analysts, financial advisers, asset managers, rating agencies, and underwriters—are now participat- ing in the intermediation of savings and the allocation of credit through arm’s-length markets. At the same time, the financial products offered to savers have also become more complex. While bank deposits used to be the main savings vehicle, a saver now faces a large set of risky securities whose evaluation requires detailed information on the issuers’ prospects and on macroeconomic conditions. The complexity of financial instruments and the intermediation pro- cess increases the number of interactions between agents in conditions of asymmetric information, giving rise to agency problems that are unfamil- iar to individuals used to operating in bank-based systems. Since gather- ing information on the prospects of securities is costly, individuals that wish to invest in them may rely on the opinion of a financial analyst to guide their decisions or may delegate the management of their funds to Institutional Investors and Agency Issues 267 a portfolio manager, trusting the manager to have superior information about those prospects. Of course, whether such agents do have superior knowledge about the securities is unknown to the individuals but not to the agents themselves. Similarly, asset managers that wish to invest on behalf of their clients will also rely on the opinion of credit-rating agen- cies and financial analysts that may have superior information about the products and firms. Regulatory systems also have to adapt to this changing financial archi- tecture, especially because, for the reasons stated above, they may be in charge of representing the interests of numerous and diverse individual investors in different segments of highly interconnected financial markets. This chapter describes the main agency problems that arise with the emergence of nonbank financial intermediaries and discusses their rel- evance for Latin American countries in light of the current and future conditions of these intermediaries. In the process, the chapter also takes stock of the lessons learned in countries where these intermediaries have become systemically important (most notably the United States). The chapter illustrates the discussion with examples and data from the region to the extent possible. However, the paucity of data and the scarcity of rigorous systematic analysis of the characteristics and workings of institutional investors in the region unavoidably temper the strength of the conclusions that can be reached. For this reason, the chapter has a dual goal. First, it aims to show that the increased importance of non- bank financial intermediaries raises a series of relevant agency problems that may, based on the existing data, have important real consequences for the returns to private savings and for financial market development. Second, it aims to convey the message that these potential consequences are important enough to warrant further systematic data-gathering efforts and detailed analysis of the workings of regulated and unregulated insti- tutional investors in the region. Only an accurate characterization of the environment and behavior of these important market players will lead to proper and timely regulation. The rest of the chapter is structured as follows. It first describes the changing landscape of financial intermediation in Latin America, show- ing banks’ relative decline in importance and the increased importance of different institutional investors. It also characterizes the structure of the financial sector in Latin America, including its competitive structure, cor- porate structure, and portfolio composition. Next, the chapter describes the changes in the process of financial intermediation associated with this new landscape and the agency problems that arise from those changes. It then looks at the consequences of these agency problems for Latin American countries, taking into consideration the conceptual characteris- tics of each agency issue and the specific workings of the region’s financial intermediaries. In the conclusion, the chapter raises some policy issues arising from the discussion. 268 emerging issues in financial development The Changing Landscape of Financial Intermediation in Latin America In many Latin American countries, the financial landscape in the 2000s is different from that of the 1990s. In the past, most intermediation in Latin America occurred in a banking system that was small relative to gross domestic product (GDP). In recent years, two phenomena have occurred. First, financial intermediation has deepened, and, second, a larger volume of intermediation is occurring in institutional investors outside banks. These institutions now intermediate a much larger fraction of aggregate savings. Figure 6.1 shows this evolution for LAC7 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay). Among these coun- tries, the average ratio of bank assets to GDP was about 37 percent in the 1990s, while in the 2000s it has reached 42 percent. Most of that growth has occurred outside the banking sector, where assets of nonbank financial institutions (pension funds, mutual funds, and insurance companies) have doubled as a share of GDP. Banks have also grown as a share of GDP, as a sign of the deepening of Latin America’s financial markets, but in most countries, their relative size has fallen in the 2000s. Nonetheless, it is clear that while the landscape has changed, banks still dominate Latin American financial systems, both directly and indirectly.1 In nonbank financial intermediation, pension funds have been domi- nant in the region, both in the 1990s and the 2000s (figure 6.1). For instance, in LAC7, for which there are comparable data across the two decades, pension funds represented 7 percent of GDP and 14 percent of financial assets in the 1990s, and 17 percent and 21 percent, respectively, in the 2000s. They have also been the main drivers of the expansion of the nonbank financial sector, growing 58 percent from the 1990s to the 2000s. Insurance companies are smaller than pension and mutual funds in Latin American financial markets, but they are present in almost every country. With the exception of a few countries (Chile and Peru), the insur- ance industry has experienced much slower growth than pension and mutual funds. The mutual fund industry expanded significantly between the 1990s and the 2000s; for all practical purposes, though, it has a mean- ingful size only in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico.2 According to anecdotal evidence, an important component of inter- mediation in Latin America also occurs through personal asset manage- ment services provided by banks and other financial institutions. This form of intermediation, which does not occur through an institutional investor, combines some aspects of traditional relationship banking with delegated portfolio management and is analogous to the separately managed accounts offered by financial companies in the United States. Because this industry is unregulated in Latin America, there is little infor- mation on its size; but according to some estimates, in the United States Institutional Investors and Agency Issues 269 Figure 6.1 Evolution of Main Financial Market Players in Selected Latin American Countries, 1990 and 2000 a. Average assets as a share of GDP 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 % GDP 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 1990 2000 Year b. Average assets as a share of total financial assets 100 80 60 Percent 40 20 0 1990 2000 Year Banks Mutual funds Pension funds Insurance Source: Based on data from FinStats; Beck, Levine, and Loayza 2000; Yermo 2000; Cheikhrouhou et al. 2007. Note: Only countries with good coverage are taken into account (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay). GDP = gross domestic product. 270 emerging issues in financial development personal asset management services are similar in size to the mutual fund industry.3 Information on the size of this component of the industry is largely nonexistent in Latin America, but if the pattern is similar to that in the United States, an important segment of the financial intermediation industry could be seriously underreported. Number of Firms and Market Concentration Most countries experienced a market consolidation of pension funds and insurance companies between the late 1990s and the late 2000s (table 6.1). This was the case, for example, in countries such as Chile and Colombia (and Argentina before nationalization), where the number of pension fund administrators declined from nine and eight in 1998 to five and six, respectively, in 2008. Mexico experienced an inverted U-shaped pattern in this industry, with an increase in the number of administrators from 13 in 1998 to 21 in 2007 and down to 19 in 2008. The number of mutual funds available, however, increased in most countries between 1998 and 2008.4 In funds per million people, Chile is the country with the highest incidence across industries with the exception of mutual funds, where Brazil has a higher penetration (not reported). Chile looks similar to the United States in mutual funds and insurance companies per million, while Brazil has a higher proportion of mutual funds. Because of the small movements in the number of participants in the different markets, the concentration of the industries is still very high (table 6.2). The 10 largest mutual fund companies represent about 80 percent of the market in most Latin American countries with available data. The situa- tion is similar among life insurance companies, with a little less concentration among general insurance companies. Among pension funds, the concentra- tion is extremely high because many countries have fewer than 10 adminis- trators operating; the table presents the share of the largest two companies, which in most cases is around 50 percent (Mexico being the only exception). Corporate Structure The relative decline of banks and the movement of intermediation outside the banking system do not necessarily mean that new players are becom- ing more prominent. Because of the prevalence of large business groups in Latin American countries, many of the large players among institutional investors have close ties to large banks. In some countries, they are directly part of the bank, while in others they belong to the same financial group. With the exception of Peru, most LAC7 countries allow banks to operate in the securities business. As of 2007, these activities were completely unrestricted in Argentina, Mexico, and Uruguay. Other countries impose some restrictions on the relations of banks with other segments of finan- cial markets (Caprio, Laeven, and Levine 2007). In countries like Brazil Table 6.1 Main Financial Participants in Financial Markets, 1998 and 2008 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru Uruguay 1998, absolute terms Banks 107 203a 30a — 52a 19a — Pension fund administrators 15 — 9 8 13 5 6 Pension funds — — — — — — — Insurance companies 276 128 52 37 60 15 18 Mutual fund companies — — — — — — — Mutual funds 229 2,438b 102b — 312b — — 2008, absolute terms Banks 69 139 26 75 29 15 12 Pension fund adminstration — 45 5 6 19 4 4 Pension funds — 416 25 6 95 12 4 Insurance companies 178 187 52 42 98 13 16 Mutual fund companies 40 1,582 21 25 34 22 16 Mutual funds 200 7,130 418 — 502 54 — (continued next page) 271 Table 6.1 (continued) 272 Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Peru Uruguay 2008, per million people Banks 1.7 0.7 1.6 1.7 0.3 0.5 4.0 Pension fund administrators — 0.2 0.3 0.1 0.2 0.1 1.3 d Pension funds — 2.2 1.6 0.1 0.9 0.4 1.3 Insurance companies 4.5 1.0 3.3 1.0 0.9 0.5 5.3 Mutual fund companies 1.0 8.3 1.3 0.6 0.3 0.8 5.3 Mutual funds 5.0 37.5 26.1 — 4.6 1.9 — Source: EIU country finance reports; How Countries Supervise Their Banks, Insurers and Securities Markets 2009; Local Superintendencies; AIOS; Based on the number of multifunds offered. FIAFIN. Population data were obtained from the World Development Indicators. Note: The table shows the number of institutions in each category participating in financial markets for main Latin American countries. — = not available. Institutional Investors and Agency Issues 273 Table 6.2 Market Share of Largest Companies and Funds in Selected Latin American Countries, 1998 and 2008 Market share (%) Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico 1998 Banks: Largest 5 48 58 59 — 80 All insurances: Largest 10 — 67 — — 100 Pension funds: Largest 2 53 — 62 77 45 2008 Banks: Largest 5 51 67 73 64 77 Largest 10 74 76 94 86 92 Mutual funds: Largest 10 79 84 87 73 88 General insurances: Largest 10 54 — — 78 — Life insurance: Largest 10 82 62 73 61 88 Pension funds: Largest 10 — 60 100 100 92 Largest 2 — — 55 52 33 Sources: Economist Intelligence Unit Country Finance Reports (various issues, 2009); Barth, Caprio, and Levine 2001; Yermo 2000; AIOS. Note: — = not available. and Chile, for example, banks can operate in securities markets through fully owned subsidiaries that are separated from the bank by some form of firewall, but they can use the same corporate name. The situation is somewhat different in the rest of Latin America, where restrictions on the operation of banks in different financial segments are more common. Restrictions on the operations of insurance markets are more common in the region, with only two LAC7 countries permitting it with minimum requirements, three imposing tougher restrictions, and two countries prohibiting this activity. These differences might result from the initial strength of the insurance industry in the region (which may have opposed the incursion of banks into their segment) during the period of financial reforms in the 1990s. Regarding ownership, most countries permit nonbank financial firms to own banks, while there are more restrictions on bank ownership of nonfinancial firms. This arrangement leaves room for the operation of finan- cial conglomerates with complex ownership structures common in the region. The ownership concentration of different segments of the financial sector by conglomerates has been noted and discussed since the origins of the pension fund system. Yermo (2000), for example, noted that the ownership of pension funds “is not very diversified, with large financial 274 emerging issues in financial development institutions, especially banks and financial conglomerates, holding large stakes in pension fund administrators.” This concentration remains high across all market segments.5 Table 6.3 gives a rough view of the association of the 10 largest institutions in several segments of the financial sector with one of the 10 largest banks in selected Latin American countries. The asso- ciation has been determined, in most cases, by comparing the corporate name. This method thus gives a lower bound to the true degree of owner- ship concentration because it captures only obvious links. The complexity of ownership structures in Latin America that include control pyramids and cross-holdings suggests that the downward bias may be important.6 There is a large degree of ownership concentration in pension and mutual funds and among investment banks. With the exception of Brazil, where pension funds work differently from the rest of the region, about 40 percent of the 10 largest pension funds and 55 percent of the assets of Table 6.3 Ownership Concentration in Selected Latin American Countries, 2008 Percentage of 10 largest institutions related to 10 largest banks Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Mexico Insurance General 10 — 30 30 40 Life 10 50 40 30 50 Pension funds — 10 40 33 50 Mutual funds 70 60 80 — 80 Investment banks and brokerages Investment banks 0 90 60 33 — Brokerages — 70 — — 30 Share of assets of 10 largest institutions related to 10 largest banks Insurance General 6 34 21 23 Pension funds — 2 53 53 64 Mutual funds 56 67 91 — 94 Investment banks and brokerages Investment banks 0 98 52 83 — Brokerages — 87 — — 30 Source: Economist Intelligence Unit (various issues). Note: — = not available. Institutional Investors and Agency Issues 275 pension funds are directly related to some of the 10 largest banks in the country (that is, they share the name). In the case of mutual funds, the concentration is even higher, with 73 percent of the 10 largest funds and 77 percent of mutual fund assets related to large banks. This concentration of ownership is also found in the Latin American banking sector. Caprio, Laeven, and Levine (2007) report that, among LAC7 countries, only 10 percent of the banks are widely held and that in 70 percent of the cases with concentrated ownership the controller is a family. In the rest of the world, the share of widely held banks is 27 percent, and only 33 percent of the banks are family owned. The low number of firms in all segments of financial markets, the high concentration of ownership in banks, and the high degree of cross- ownership between banks and other financial institutions suggest that Latin American financial markets are still highly concentrated and con- trolled by a few important business conglomerates. In such environments, the competitive pressures on the banking sector from the development of other credit providers are likely to be limited, and, as will be discussed below, the potential for conflicts of interest is enlarged. How Do They Invest? The composition of institutional investors’ portfolios gives an overview of their risk-taking behavior within and across countries. Do they invest mainly in government bonds, corporate bonds, or equity? Do their alloca- tions relate to their investment horizons? Do they trade actively? Portfolio composition is more widely available on pension funds. The evolution of the portfolio composition in the first and second half of the 2000s is reported in figure 6.2. The figure shows an increase in equity, foreign investments, and corporate bonds and a decline in financial insti- tutions’ assets and government bonds. This trend is similar to data from 1998. Thus, compared to the late 1990s, pension funds are investing a larger fraction of their portfolio in riskier assets. Nonetheless, government bonds and deposits still make up about 60 percent of pension fund portfo- lios, although this figure varies greatly across countries. Data on the portfolio composition of insurance companies are harder to obtain. Figure 6.3 shows the composition of insurance companies’ portfolios in seven Latin American countries in 2007, as reported by the Asociación de Supervisores de Seguros de Latinoamérica (ASSAL). The categories are different from those used for pension funds, and the time coverage is limited (reaching back only to 2004), but the data show a pattern consistent with that of pension funds. Thus, these data show that two of the largest institutional investors in the region allocate a large percentage of their portfolios to government debt. Data on mutual fund portfolio composition are available for only a subset of Latin American countries. Figure 6.4a shows that mutual funds 276 emerging issues in financial development in Brazil invest most of their assets in government debt. Although the share of this debt declined significantly between 20003–04 and 2009–09, from 73 to 48 percent, much of this decline was accounted for by securi- ties backed by government debt, and only a minor reallocation occurred for equity. The situation in Mexico is similar but with less variation over time (figure 6.4d). A few studies have looked at the trading behavior and maturity struc- ture of the portfolios of institutional investors in Latin America. Olivares and Sepulveda (2007) document the presence of “herding” in equity trades among Chilean pension funds, the situation in which funds trade simultaneously in similar assets. Raddatz and Schmukler (2008) confirm the presence of herding among pension funds within several asset classes, Figure 6.2 Composition of Pension Fund Investments in Latin America as Percentage of Total Portfolio, 1999–2004 and 2004–08 a. Average across countries 100 90 80 70 % of total portfolio 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1999–2004 2005–08 Year Government securities Financial institution securities and deposits Private bonds Foreign securities Equities Mutual funds (continued next page) Institutional Investors and Agency Issues 277 Figure 6.2 (continued) b. By country 100 90 80 70 % of total portfolio 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1999–04 2005–08 1999–04 2005–08 1999–04 2005–08 1999–04 2005–08 1999–04 2005–08 1999–04 2005–08 Argentina Chile Colombia Mexico Peru Uruguay Country Government securities Financial institution securities and deposits Private bonds Foreign securities Equities Mutual funds Other investments Source: Calculations based on data from FinStats; Beck et al. 2000; Yermo 2000; and Cheikhrouhou et al. 2007. Note: Figure 6.2 shows the composition of pension fund investments as a share of the total portfolio between 1999 and 2008. Panel a shows average portfolio composition. Panel b shows the portfolio composition in each country. especially among those that are relatively more opaque; but they also show that pension funds trade little (they mostly buy and hold assets) and that in several cases they follow momentum strategies (for example, a fund may buy assets that experienced an increase in price). Opazo, Raddatz, and Schmukler (2009) show that Chilean pension and mutual funds invest a large proportion of their assets in short-term securities (60 percent at less than three years) and that only insurance companies invest a larger frac- tion at long horizons. While all this evidence comes from only one country, Chile is one of the most financially developed countries in the region, and the patterns may likely be present in other countries as well. 278 emerging issues in financial development Figure 6.3 Composition of Insurance Companies’ Portfolios in Selected Latin American Countries, 2007 (% of total portfolio) Other Real estate 8.0 Foreign 4.7 securities 6.7 Equities 5.2 75.4 Fixed income Source: Asociación de Supervisores de Seguros de Latinoamérica (ASSAL), http://www.assalweb.org/index_consulta.php. Note: Countries include Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. The Process of Financial Intermediation and Resulting Agency Problems As intermediation gradually moves outside the banking system in Latin America, individuals increasingly rely on asset management companies, such as institutional investors, and absorb greater direct risks by becom- ing shareholders instead of insured debt holders. The movement of funds outside the relationship-based banking system introduces new challenges arising from the need to deal with agency problems on multiple layers. As folk wisdom indicates, the more participants involved in a transaction, the larger the potential for agency problems. Financial intermediation through institutional investors raises several agency problems that are different from those resulting from the interac- tion between savers and banks. As noted by Diamond and Rajan (2001), financial institutions such as mutual funds are fundamentally different from banks because they do not create liquidity; and, as asset managers Institutional Investors and Agency Issues 279 Figure 6.4 Composition of Mutual Fund Portfolios in Selected Latin American Countries (% of total assets) a. Brazil 100 90 80 70 Percent 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2003–04 2005–09 Years Deposit certificates Government bonds Private bonds Fixed-income securities backed Equity by government debt Others b. Chile 100 90 80 70 60 Percent 50 40 30 20 10 0 2000–04 2005–09 Years Deposits Private bonds Domestic equity Foreign equity Public bonds (continued next page) 280 emerging issues in financial development Figure 6.4 (continued) c. Colombia 100 90 80 70 60 Percent 50 40 30 20 10 0 2004 2005–08 Years Variable income Fixed income Real estate Others d. Mexico 100 90 80 70 60 Percent 50 40 30 20 10 0 2003–04 2005–09 Years Deposits Domestic public bonds Domestic private bonds Foreign private bonds Foreign public bonds Equity Others (continued next page) Institutional Investors and Agency Issues 281 Figure 6.4 (continued) e. Peru 100 90 80 70 60 Percent 50 40 30 20 10 0 2000–04 2005–09 Years Bank deposits Bonds Equity Foreign equity Others Source: IMF’s IFS; FGV-Rio; Conasev; Superfinanciera; Andima; Banxico. Note: For all countries, the original data are in current US$ millions. In the case of Brazil, we had to adjust to current values (using the IGP-M index), once the data come in constant terms. For Peru, we aggregated Fondos Mutuos with Fondos de Inversiones. Equity includes “acciones de capital” and “acciones de inversion” for fondos mutuos, while in the case of investment funds, equities are composed by “acciones de capital,” “fondos de inversion,” and “otras participaciones” until 2002, and “derechos de participacion patrimonial” from 2004 on. In the case of Colombia, Fondos Vigilados and Fondos Controlados are reported in different tables for 2002. Period averages are calculated using simple averages. only, they do not have hard liabilities, and claim holders do not have strong incentives to run in case of distress. Thus, because the structure of liabilities and the threat of a run do not provide enough incentives for asset managers, these incentives have to be provided through compensa- tion schemes. To set up a road map for the rest of the chapter, this section provides a simple description of the agents involved in the intermediation process and discusses the potential agency problems arising from their different interactions. 282 emerging issues in financial development The process of financial intermediation through an institutional investor has some characteristics that are common across markets and others that are particular to each type of investor and to each country. Figure 6.5 shows the relation among agents involved in the operation of a prototype institutional investor. The figure does not aim to be exhaustive, but only to highlight the main interactions among the dif- ferent players.7 As shown in figure 6.5, institutional investors gather savings from individuals (underlying investors) and invest them on their behalf. This delegation of the investment decision occurs under asymmetric informa- tion and gives rise to agency problems from “delegated portfolio man- agement.” These problems relate to the effort made by asset managers to gather information about securities and to the action they take on that information (portfolio selection and risk taking). Underlying inves- tors can deal with these agency problems by imposing market discipline through compensation schemes and, in open-ended funds, by choosing to leave the manager (outflows). This divergence of interests may also occur between firm management and asset managers within the company, and it is addressed through compensation schemes with specific evaluation hori- zons and other types of incentives that may differ from those used by the individual investors in their interaction with the company. A related, but slightly different, issue is that the asset manager may have direct interests in some of the firms available in the market. Those interests may further bias the portfolio selection (related lending). Institutional investors are usually regulated, and those regulations will affect their operations. The regulator acts under asymmetric information with respect to the institutional investor, and there may also be a diver- gence of interests between the regulator and the individual investor. In this relationship, regulators will impose requirements on institutional inves- tors to help address the delegated portfolio management problems, and institutional investors will lobby to obtain regulation better suited to their preferences and to capture the regulator (regulatory capture). Regulations may require risk-rating agencies to rate securities that can be purchased by institutional investors. There is also some degree of asym- metric information between the rating agency and the asset manager on the true quality of the issuance and on the relation between the agency and the issuer, which may result in inappropriate ratings (conflict of interest, rating shopping). It is rare that individual investors independently select asset managers and asset management companies. Most typically, these investors learn about the products through the sales and distribution channels of these companies. Again, the salesperson may have better information about the quality and nature of the services being offered to investors, which leaves scope for aggressive sales practices based on partial information (predatory practices). Figure 6.5 Prototype Institutional Investor Operation Risk rating Ratings Regulator Agencies Rating -Regulatory framework -Information Request Ratings -Lobby Savings Savings Asset issuer Funds Institutional investor Sales Government Asset Management Individual manage- -Assets ment Minority -Payments -Outflows -Information Majority Risk Other mgmt. Source: Asociación de Supervisores de Seguros de Latinoamérica (ASSAL), http://www.assalweb.org/index_consulta.php. Note: Countries include Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. 283 284 emerging issues in financial development During their operation, institutional investors may acquire control rights as shareholders of companies. This situation exposes them to the standard agency problems among shareholders, debt holders, and man- agement. Since institutional investors are larger and more sophisticated than individual investors, they are in a better position to address the agency problems related to corporate governance in representation of their investors. Finally, the boundaries of institutional investors may include the sales and distribution channels and other segments of the financial markets. The investors are also connected to many other segments. As a result, some of them may become too big or too interconnected to fail and may anticipate government action if events turn unfavorable. This expectation will likely affect their risk-taking behavior. Dealing with Agency Problems and the Consequences in Latin America The agency issues resulting from the interaction among savers, firms, gov- ernments, and institutional investors are different from those present in a traditional relationship-based banking system. In these interactions, the compensation schemes faced by asset management companies and asset managers within these companies play a central role. Without the contract structure used by banks, based on demand deposits, these compensation schemes provide incentives to exert effort in information acquisition and to take risk.8 Furthermore, the competitive and corporate structure of the financial system in Latin American countries would also caution us to pay close attention to the issues of related lending and regulatory capture. The following section gives a detailed description of each of these agency issues and discusses their importance for Latin American countries based on existing evidence. The focus is on delegated portfolio management, related lending, regulatory capture, and moral hazard (too-big-to-fail).9 Delegated Portfolio Management An extensive literature has analyzed the problems resulting from the relationship between an uninformed investor and an asset manager with better information on the returns of different risky securities than the cli- ent whose assets he or she is managing. The literature labels this problem the delegated portfolio management problem.10 The main question underlying the delegated portfolio management literature is how individual investors (or their representatives) can pro- vide appropriate incentives for asset managers and the consequences of popular incentive schemes for taking risk and eliciting effort. The follow- ing discussion distinguishes between direct incentives provided to asset Institutional Investors and Agency Issues 285 managers either by individuals or by the companies where they work, indirect incentives resulting from the decision of investors to move their savings across funds, and regulatory incentives set by the authority in rep- resentation of individual investors. In each case, the discussion focuses on the conditions in Latin American countries and on the main institutional investors in the region. Direct Incentives An important part of the theoretical literature on del- egated portfolio management focuses on how the direct incentives embed- ded in sharing rules and compensation schemes affect the efforts of asset managers to gather information about risky assets and invest optimally based on that information. While the literature typically assumes a di- rect interaction between the individual investor and the asset manager, in practice asset managers typically work for an asset management company (AMC). The individual investors pay fees to the AMC that vary across funds, and the AMC pays the managers for their work. Although in many cases the structure of fees may correspond to the manager’s compensation arrangement, this does not need to be the case. One can think about com- pensation schemes as having two layers, one between the individual inves- tor and the AMC and another between the AMC and the manager. This distinction may be especially important for the type of pension funds in Latin America, where the law regulates the fee structure charged by AMCs. Pension Funds In most Latin American countries with a fully capital- ized, privately managed, individual-contribution pension system,11future pensioners pay management fees corresponding to a percentage of the contributions to the fund during the accumulation phase. For instance, the contribution and management fees may be set to 5 percent and 1 percent of the worker’s gross income. The worker would thus be paying a fee cor- responding to 20 percent of the contribution. The fees currently charged by pension fund administrators (PFAs) in different Latin American coun- tries and their structure are shown in table 6.4. Under the typical Latin American fee structure based on a percentage of the inflows, a worker pays the PFA upfront for the management of the funds associated with his or her contribution. The PFA does not charge again for managing the funds that entered in the past. These upfront fees are not returned to the workers if they decide to move to a different PFA, and thus the new PFA would only benefit from the fees resulting from future contributions made by the workers, while having to administer the full stock of the workers’ assets. Evidently, this type of fee structure is not directly related to the PFA’s absolute or relative performance (with the exceptions of Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic). A worker pays the same amount to the PFA regardless of the gross return obtained by the fund and of its performance relative to its peers. Thus, any impact of the fee structure on the behavior of PFAs will necessarily come from indirect or regulatory incentives. 286 emerging issues in financial development Table 6.4 Fees Charged by Pension Fund Administrators in Selected Latin American Countries, as Percentage of Workers’ Gross Income, 2006 (percent) Fund Capitalization administrator Disability Country account commission Subtotal insurance Total Argentina 4.41 1.22 5.63 1.37 7.00 Bolivia 10.00 0.50 10.50 1.71 12.21 Colombia 11.00 1.55 12.55 1.45 14.00 a b Costa Rica 4.25 4.25 4.25 Chile 10.00 1.36 11.36 1.06 12.42 El Salvador 10.30 1.40 11.70 1.30 13.00 c Mexico 5.24 1.26 6.50 6.50 Peru 10.00 1.83 11.83 0.91 12.74 Dominican Republic 7.00 0.50 7.50 1.00 8.50 Uruguay 11.95 2.03 13.98 1.02 15.00 Source: Federación Internacional de Administradores de Fondos de Pensiones (FIAP), Tasas de Cotización y Topes Imponibles en los Países con Sistemas de Capitalización Individual. March 2007. http://www.fiap.cl/prontus_fiap/site/ artic/20070608/asocfile/20070608111120/asocfile120070404111944.doc. a. Commissions are charged on a different basis from percent of gross income. b. Disability insurance is covered by the Public Program that has a cotization rate of 7.5 percent. c. Disability insurance is financed by the worker (0.625 percent), employer (1.75 percent), and state (0.125 percent), but it is administered by the Instituto Mexicano de Seguridad Social. It may be the case that although the fees charged by the PFAs to workers do not contain direct incentives, the compensation schemes offered by the PFAs to their asset managers do. Although there are no systematic data on the types of asset managers’ compensation schemes, anecdotal evidence suggests that their compensation increases according to how they rank among their peers in gross returns, with some extra compensation for persistent good rankings, and that there are tight controls on risk tak- ing to keep them from hitting the band of minimum returns imposed by the regulator.12 These schemes balance two forces. First, compensation based on ranking is nonlinear in returns and convex.13 It may be highly Institutional Investors and Agency Issues 287 nonlinear if there is only a bonus for reaching first place in the ranking. Although the theoretical literature has shown that convexity in compensa- tion is not necessarily related to more risk taking, the empirical evidence suggests some relation in this direction (Chevalier and Ellison 1997; Elton, Gruber, and Blake 2003). Second, compensation schemes based on a tracking error—the percentage deviation of returns with respect to a benchmark—tend to reduce the incentives for risk taking relative to the benchmark, since risk makes it more likely to end up with a higher track- ing error than the allowed amounts. The incentives for herding around a benchmark become even stronger if there is a serious penalty for hitting a given threshold below the benchmark, as is believed to be the case in countries like Chile. The balance between these two opposite forces will depend on their relative strength: that is, how important the incentives are for risk taking resulting from ranking-related bonuses relative to the incentives for herd- ing resulting from tracking errors and penalties for below-average returns. The explicit quantitative controls on risk taking in cases like Chile suggest that the balance is tilted against risk taking. This balance is not surpris- ing because the PFA sets these internal incentives, and they likely depend on the impact that a high ranking and a low relative return may have on its income. As we will see below, there is little evidence that net inflows respond to performance, even when performance is measured by a fund’s ranking. As we will also see below, however, PFAs may face serious regula- tory costs if their returns are too far below average. Available empirical evidence on PFAs’ investment behavior seems to confirm this prediction. Several studies have documented the presence of herding in trading among PFAs in Chile (Olivares 2004; Raddatz and Schmukler 2008). Also using data from Chile, Opazo, Raddatz, and Schmukler (2009) show that PFAs invest a large part of their portfolios in bank deposits and other short-term assets that face very little short-term risk. They conclude from a series of counterfactual experiments that this behavior is due to the PFAs’ incentives to herd in short-term returns. According to the available evidence, then, the PFAs face weak direct incentives, and the incentives these PFAs give to their asset managers bias them toward conservatism. The rationale for this bias will be further clari- fied in the discussion of indirect and regulatory incentives. Mutual Funds Existing evidence indicates that mutual fund fees in Latin America are high (Edwards 1996; Maturana and Walker, 1999; Borowik and Kalb 2010; Yermo 2000). Their structure, however, is relatively standard. Table 6.5 compares the simple average of the fees charged by a sample of equity, fixed income, balanced, and money market funds in six Latin American countries.14 The table shows that the main type of fee charged by Latin American mutual funds is a fixed annual fee pro- portional to the assets under management (AUM). This fee is typically 288 Table 6.5 Mutual Fund Fees in Selected Latin American Countries Annual fixed fee Funds with (% Assets under Funds with Entry fees Exit fees (% Office minimum management performance fee (% amount Exit fees funds with expenses fees investment Sample of [AUM]) (% of funds) deposited) (% AUM) sliding scale) (% AUM) (% of funds) funds Balanced funds Argentina 2.6 0 0.005 0.50 0 0 50 2 Brazil 2.0 70 0 0.50 0 0 100 10 Chile 4.8 0 0 2.38 60 0 80 5 Colombia 1.9 0 0 0.00 20 0 100 5 Mexico 4.2 0 0 0.00 0 0.008 50 4 Peru 3.0 0 0 1.17 0 0 100 3 Average 3.1 12 0.001 0.76 13 0.0013 80 Bond funds Argentina 2.6 0 0.002 3.00 20 0 80 5 Brazil 2.4 0 0 0.00 0 0 100 10 Chile 1.5 0 0 0.00 40 0 100 5 Colombia 1.6 0 0 0.00 0 0 100 4 Mexico 3.2 0 0 0.00 0 0 60 5 Table 6.5 (continued) Annual fixed fee Funds with (% Assets under Funds with Entry fees Exit fees (% Office minimum management performance fee (% amount Exit fees funds with expenses fees investment Sample of [AUM]) (% of funds) deposited) (% AUM) sliding scale) (% AUM) (% of funds) funds Peru 2.5 0 0 1.92 0 0 100 3 Average 2.3 0 0.0003 0.82 10 0 90 Equity funds Argentina 3.9 0 0.002 0.40 20 0 80 5 Brazil 2.3 40 0 0.50 0 0 100 10 Chile 4.4 10 0 0.00 70 0.004 70 10 Colombia 0.6 0 0 0.00 0 0 100 1 Mexico 3.7 0 0 0.00 0 0.002 20 5 Peru 3.2 0 0 1.83 0 0 100 3 Average 3.0 8 0.0003 0.46 15 0.001 78 Money market funds Argentina 1.2 0 0.002 3.00 20 0 80 5 Brazil 2.1 0 0 0.00 0 0 100 10 Chile 1.3 0 0 0.00 0 0 80 5 Colombia 1.2 0 0 0.00 0 0 100 4 289 (continued next page) 290 Table 6.5 (continued) Annual fixed fee Funds with (% Assets under Funds with Entry fees Exit fees (% Office minimum management performance fee (% amount Exit fees funds with expenses fees investment Sample of [AUM]) (% of funds) deposited) (% AUM) sliding scale) (% AUM) (% of funds) funds Mexico 4.0 0 0 0.00 0 0 80 5 Peru 2.2 0 0 0.08 0 0 100 3 Average 2.0 0 0.0003 0.51 3 0 90 Source: Based on information from mutual fund prospectuses in each of the countries. Institutional Investors and Agency Issues 291 larger for balanced and equity mutual funds and smaller for bond and money market mutual funds. Performance fees are rare and occur in only a fraction of Brazilian and Chilean equity and balanced funds.15 Bond and money market funds do not charge performance fees. There are typically no entry fees (front-end loads), but exit fees are slightly more common, with funds charging an exit fee either at all events (back-end loads) or con- ditional on a minimum stay (so-called contingent differed sales charge).16 Most funds in the region, across types, also require a minimum investment to enter, similar to that charged by mutual funds in developed countries. As shown in table 6.5, a widespread aspect of compensation embed- ded in the funds’ fee structure is that performance fees are rarely used and that, when used, they do not make a distinction between alpha and beta—the component of returns related to a manager’s ability and risk taking, respectively—but depend on gross returns. Thus, alpha-generating managers earn fees similar to those who get returns from taking risk. This could give incentives to take more systemic risk rather than increase alpha, since boosting the latter requires actual selection abilities.17 Nonetheless, the ultimate incentives for risk taking will depend on the responsiveness of managers’ compensation to relative performance, which is believed to be small.18 Furthermore, there seems to be little long-term consequences to per- formance. Manager turnover is high, and actual portfolio management is usually an entry-level position in a financial firm. As a result, asset manag- ers in the region are unlikely to have strong career concerns. The impact of this combination on risk taking is ambiguous, but together with the use of tracking error and a small response to overperformance, it may induce a conservative bias. Based on the circumstantial evidence discussed above, this is likely to be the case in Latin America.19 As previously mentioned, the provision of personalized portfolio management services to wealthy individuals is believed to be large in Latin America. In fact, even in the United States this industry has assets under management similar to the mutual fund industry. These services are unregulated, and little information is available on their operations; but they seem to follow a fee structure similar to that of mutual funds based on a fixed fee on assets under management. These services are also typically provided by the same banks and financial institutions that offer mutual funds, so that they probably provide similar incentives to the asset managers. The sales force, however, plays a more important role here than in the distribution of standardized products like mutual funds. Compensation to the distribution channel may be very important. In fact, anecdotal evidence from Mexico indicates that 70 percent of collected fees in this industry go to distributors and 30 percent to asset managers. Overall, mutual fund fees in Latin American countries are typically high and do not include direct incentives linked to performance. Some 292 emerging issues in financial development anecdotal evidence indicates that asset managers are weakly rewarded for performance and that direct incentives are unlikely to play a major role in inducing risk taking. Insurance Companies The assets of insurance companies consist mainly of portfolios of securities, but insurance companies do not charge man- agement fees to insured persons. Unlike other institutional investors, insurance companies face substantial scope for asymmetric information on the side of the insured (moral hazard and adverse selection), so that contracts are structured to minimize this asymmetric information prob- lem (for example, by requiring deductibles) without the goal of disciplin- ing the insurance company.20 Regrettably, there is little or no information on the type or structure of the fees insurance companies pay for asset management. In the cases in which asset management is internal to the company, confidential internal compensation policies provide the incen- tives for asset managers, in conjunction with the internal supervision carried out by the risk management function and other internal control systems. When asset management is external to the company, fee struc- tures are likely to be similar to those charged by mutual fund companies; but, based on existing evidence, the fees charged by these companies to institutional investors are significantly lower and not subject to front- or back-loaded fees. The discussion above indicates that fees charged to insured individuals offer no direct incentives for the insurance company. Instead, the compa- nies’ incentives come directly from their liability structure. Conditional on solvency, these incentives lead companies to monitor the allocation of assets properly. However, the equity of company shareholders declines if the value of the assets falls below the value of their expected liabili- ties (minus reserves). Similar to any firm that issues debt, these liabilities result in a convex payoff structure—a return below the value of liabilities results in no income for shareholders, but they are the residual claimants of any return in excess of that value—for shareholders. This convexity may induce shareholders to take excessive risk, but we will see that under normal conditions, regulatory constraints will significantly reduce the pos- sibilities and incentives to do so. Indirect Incentives Even if the direct compensation schemes do not provide high-powered incentives, the response of investors to perfor- mance can provide them. For instance, since mutual funds typically charge fees corresponding to a percentage of assets under management, the behavior of inflows and outflows is crucial for the profitability of fund administrators. Moreover, being a fraction of assets under manage- ment, these indirect incentives are convex,21 so that they could affect the attitude of managers toward risk. The rest of this section discusses the role of these types of incentives in the main asset management industries in Latin America. Institutional Investors and Agency Issues 293 Pension Funds In many Latin American countries, fees charged by PFAs are typically a percentage of a worker’s monthly contribution. Assuming that management costs increase along with assets under management, this fee structure makes workers with a low stock of assets much more profit- able than those with a higher stock. Economies of scale would reduce the cost differential between these two types of workers, but it is unlikely to reverse it. For the high-flow worker, the PFA is collecting today the fees for future administration of the contributions and their future returns, while incurring little costs. In contrast, for a worker with a high stock already paid to the PFA for administration, the PFA is incurring a higher current management cost than the income it gets from the current fees. Since the fees collected for past contributions do not move with the worker when he or she moves to a different PFA, a PFA that captures relatively younger workers will have a higher income flow than one that serves mainly older workers close to retirement. This structure could create a bias toward high-flow, low-asset clients, such as young workers, and the behavior of these workers might guide PFAs’ behavior. For instance, if young workers are less risk averse than older ones, PFAs may be tempted to increase returns by taking more risk to attract this segment. In addition, since pension benefits are far in the future for young workers, they may respond more strongly to current transfers coming from the PFAs.22 Whether the types of fees charged by PFAs provide incentives to adjust performance depends crucially on whether workers (especially young ones) respond to any measure of PFAs’ performance when deciding to change administrators. Most of the available evidence suggests that net inflows to PFAs do not strongly respond to performance or to manage- ment fees. Instead, they respond to the number of salespersons deployed by PFAs. The deployment of a large number of salespersons increases net transfers and the elasticity of these transfers to returns and fees (see Berstein and Micco 2002; Berstein and Ruiz 2004; Berstein and Cabrita 2007; García-Huitrón and Rodríguez 2003; Meléndez 2004; Armenta 2007; Masías and Sanchez 2006; Chisari et al. 1998). Some evidence shows a positive correlation between inflows and performance, when the latter is measured as obtaining a first-place ranking in profitability across PFAs, but the magnitude is small (Cerda 2006). There are several possible explanations for this lack of market disci- pline on PFAs. A simple possibility is that in many countries workers may find regulatory barriers to changing administrators. These barriers, how- ever, are typically temporary and should not preclude movements resulting from persistent differences in performances or fees.23 It is also possible that workers lack the appropriate information to decide whether it is con- venient for them to change PFAs. Some of the evidence discussed above on the impact of the sales force on increasing the price elasticity of transfers points in this direction.24 There are also some behavioral explanations for 294 emerging issues in financial development the workers’ lack of responsiveness to performance. For instance, Yermo (2000) argues that the compulsory nature of the contributions, which are deducted from payroll, reduces the ownership that workers have over the funds. Workers may correctly or incorrectly assume that the compulsory nature of contributions makes the government implicitly accountable for providing them a pension, and the existence of minimum return guaran- tees in many countries may undermine workers’ incentives to exert market discipline if there is not much variation in performance (as seems to be the case) and there are fixed costs of monitoring. Mutual Funds Indirect incentives likely play a larger role in mutual funds than in PFAs for two reasons. First, mutual funds typically charge fees as a percentage of assets under management. Thus, net inflows into (out of) funds have a direct impact on fees, without the considerations about stocks versus flows that are relevant for pension funds. Second, even if net inflows do not respond to returns, a higher return increases the assets under management and therefore increases fee income. While the relationship between performance and net inflows in U.S. mutual funds has been extensively studied, there is virtually no evidence of that relationship for Latin American mutual funds. Some evidence comes from Opazo, Raddatz, and Schmukler (2009), who find a signifi- cant correlation between a fund’s lagged short-run excess returns (one to three-month lagged return relative to the industry average) and net inflows of assets to medium to long-term Chilean mutual funds. The slope of the relation estimated is small; a (large) 10 percent excess return will result in inflows equivalent to only 2 percent of assets. With the average fees, this would result in a fee income of 0.3 percent of the assets under manage- ment.25 Interestingly, Opazo, Raddatz, and Schmukler (2009) find that inflows depend significantly only on short-term returns, indicating that market discipline on mutual funds in Chile imposes a bias toward short- term performance (there are no money market funds in their sample).26 In this regard, the evidence for Latin America is similar to that for the United States, which shows that the relation between performance and inflows imposes some indirect incentives and market discipline on manag- ers. However, Opazo, Raddatz, and Schmukler (2009) also document that outflows in Chilean mutual funds are more volatile than in similar U.S. mutual funds. This finding may result from a higher volatility of returns but may also be the outcome of more volatile investor behavior. There are some grounds for this second possibility. Proper market discipline requires transparent, timely, and comparable information, which is typically lack- ing in Latin American mutual fund markets. Although there is relative standardization in the reporting of information by PFAs, the information produced by mutual fund companies in Latin America is harder to com- pare because there are more mutual funds than PFAs and products are not as standard as those offered by pension funds.27 Institutional Investors and Agency Issues 295 In sum, indirect incentives and market discipline may play a larger role in the behavior of mutual funds than in pension funds in Latin America, making the former less conservative and more prone to risk taking than PFAs. However, the response of inflows to performance in mutual funds is still small and based mainly on short-term performance. Given the importance of mutual funds in today’s Latin American financial markets, systematic data on portfolio compositions, fee structures, returns, and inflows are urgently needed, and the analysis of these data is of first-order importance. Insurance Companies There is typically little market discipline in some lines of insurance like life and health, where shifting insurance providers may even be counterproductive for the insured (because of preexisting conditions). In other lines, like property and casualty, there is more scope for market discipline, but it is typically related to the premiums and deductibles rather than to the return on the portfolio of investments, since the latter is immaterial to the claim holder as long as the com- pany does not go bankrupt. To the best of my knowledge, there is no systematic analysis of the impact of reduced asset profitability on the total value of policies held by a company (even outside Latin America). Most incentives on the investment side come from regulation and will be discussed next. Regulatory Discipline There are several reasons for the regulation of institutional investors. One of the most important relates directly to the information asymmetries that give rise to the problem of delegated portfolio management discussed above. The rest of this section discusses the specific regulations imposed on each of the main institutional investors and their likely impact on incentives.28 Pension Funds PFAs are heavily regulated, especially in countries with compulsory retirement contributions.29 Although the regulatory burden has declined in recent years, in most countries PFAs still face quantitative restrictions aimed at reducing risk taking along several dimensions (default risk, liquidity risk, and exchange rate risk), at increasing diversification, and at reducing potential conflicts of interest. The regulation typically has broad scope and a large number of constraints at the macrolevel. In all countries, there are also regulatory constraints on the amount that can be invested in specific assets, depending on the relationship of the issuer to the fund, the liquidity of the issuance, and so forth. Given the high number of regulatory constraints faced by an asset manager, the payoff to asset discovery—that is, to gathering information about investment opportunities—is limited. Fund administrators are usually required to guarantee a minimum return and to put equity capital in each fund that can be used to top off funds when the return achieved is below the minimum. In most countries, 296 emerging issues in financial development this requirement is implemented through a minimum return based on an industry average or a benchmark. Tight regulation on portfolio composition reduces the return to asset discovery. For instance, managers have little room to improve returns by gathering information on private companies when funds are required to invest a large percentage of their assets in government bonds. Furthermore, restricting the set of private companies to those that meet minimum mar- ket capitalization, liquidity, and bond ratings may result in a very limited set of potential securities in which PFAs can invest, especially in countries with underdeveloped capital markets where a small proportion of firms is listed and even a smaller proportion has issued debt. In addition, minimum return bands reduce the incentives to take risk and favor keeping a low-return variance, especially when considering the evidence of a small return elasticity of inflows discussed above. A fund that outperforms the industry will experience at most a small increase in inflows and fees, but if the fund underperforms and is unable to meet the minimum guaranteed return, it will have to use equity capital to compen- sate affiliates. In Chile, for example, where the amount of equity capital is 1 percent of the value of the fund, a performance 1 percent below the band will wipe out equity and require new capital injections.30 Pension fund administrators have to report information to regulators and workers on a monthly basis, and regulatory bands are computed over relatively short periods. Even if outflows are not very responsive to performance, the emphasis on short-term reporting and evaluation periods increases incentives for funds to reduce short-term risk. One way to achieve this is by having short-term investment horizons and investing in short-term assets.31 Evidence from Opazo, Raddatz, and Schmukler (2009) suggests that these incentives matter for PFAs’ investments. They show that Chilean PFAs invest a large share of their portfolio in short-term assets such as bank deposits and short-term central bank bonds (akin to T-bills). For other countries, there is no evidence on the matu- rity composition of investments, but the composition of portfolios (see figure 6.2 above) shows that a large percentage of pension funds’ assets is invested in government bonds and financial deposits. Coupled with the evidence of the relatively short maturity of Latin American government bonds (Broner, Lorenzoni, and Schmukler 2010), this finding is consistent with the prevalent short-termism documented for Chilean PFAs across Latin America. The structure of regulatory incentives for Latin American pension fund administrators will likely lead them to be conservative in risk taking, espe- cially when considering the low responsiveness of flows to performance. This conservatism shows up not only in the bias toward the selection of relatively safer types of assets (such as government bonds and bank depos- its) but also in their short-term maturity. This conservative behavior may be what the regulator had in mind, but it is hard to reconcile the emphasis Institutional Investors and Agency Issues 297 on short-term performance in an industry that is supposedly aiming to provide for retirement and that should therefore be better prepared to hold onto assets and take advantage of long-term opportunities. Mutual Funds Mutual funds are much less heavily regulated than PFAs in Latin America. Nonetheless, in many countries they face restrictions on the quality of assets in which they can invest (minimum ratings); on the maximum amounts they can invest in individual corporations, in equity shares, or in bond issuances; and on regulatory information requirements. Some of these regulations aim at separating different types of mutual funds. For instance, they stipulate the thresholds for the composition of mutual fund portfolios for classification as a bond fund or an equity fund. There are also some restrictions on the amounts that can be invested in shares of related companies. These restrictions are lighter than those on pension funds, and it is unclear whether they are binding for portfolio decisions. Regulation may have some effect on market discipline by defining and controlling the type of information provided to fund shareholders and by imposing constraints on the compensation schemes that can be used. On the first front, the information that funds are required to report, after the prospectus, is relatively sparse and is limited to the value of the fund share, the returns, and the monthly fees charged. Investment styles and segments that could be used for comparisons seem not to be standardized, and, for most countries, there are no independent companies tracking and benchmarking local funds (as Morningstar does for funds in several developed countries). Funds also have to report transactions and portfo- lios on a regular basis to the regulator. For instance, in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, funds have to report the detailed composition of their portfolios on a monthly basis (Brazil permits some aggregation in cases where reveal- ing positions may affect the fund’s investment strategy).32 On the second front, some countries specify the type of fees that funds can charge. The rules here also seem to be broad, mainly restricting the type of services that can be charged but imposing little structure on the fees. While some countries like Brazil explicitly allow performance fees, others like Mexico do not specify in their regulation the base over which fees can be paid. These broad regulations are unlikely to impose serious constraints on the behavior of mutual funds or to offer these funds effective incentives. In contrast to PFAs, there is no minimum guaranteed return on mutual funds. The mutual fund manager and administrators are liable only for misconduct. This is also the case for managers of personal portfolios, who are largely unregulated and subject to rules against misconduct. At most, these managers are required to be registered with the supervisor. Overall, while there are some light regulatory constraints on the risks that mutual funds’ can take, the type of fees that funds can charge, and the information they have to report, no clear regulatory incentives are 298 emerging issues in financial development imposed on Latin American mutual funds. Thus, incentives will come mainly from direct and indirect market discipline. Insurance Companies Insurance companies are usually tightly regulated to ensure that they can meet their liabilities. Among the many regulations, they are required to manage their investments in a sound and prudent manner (establishing a clear investment policy and the mechanisms to monitor its conduct) and to maintain certain minimum technical provi- sions, capital, and reinsurance coverage to cover expected and unexpected liabilities. Many Latin American countries explicitly establish limits on the types and quantities of assets in which insurance companies can invest. Regulators enforce these rules through information gathering and on- and off-site inspections, and the regulator may intervene in companies that do not meet these thresholds.33 In many jurisdictions, there is some form of protection or special sta- tus assigned to claims on insolvent insurance companies, but the detailed implementation of this coverage of last resort varies. For instance, in the United States there is a fee charged ex post to other insurers within the state to cover policies with a bankrupt insurance company up to a cap. In Latin American countries, policyholders enjoy preferential debtor status, but there is no government-provided fund. Nonetheless, many countries allow for the possibility that regulators will transfer portfolios from dis- tressed insurance companies before they reach bankruptcy. Overall, insurance companies face restrictions on the composition of their portfolios and are expected to conduct due diligence on their man- agement, but they do not have to meet minimum return requirements or pay other fines related to underperformance. Thus, there are no strong regulatory incentives to engage in strategic portfolio allocation, but regu- latory supervision and punishments are in place to ensure that companies adhere to prudent asset management policies. Related Lending and Portfolio Biases Most institutional investors in Latin America belong to local business groups or financial conglomerates. There is, therefore, the legitimate con- cern that the resources managed by these investors may be used to benefit related companies or banks.34 This issue is not specific to institutional investors, since it applies equally to banks that belong to business groups. However, given the structure of bank liabilities and the additional layers of agents involved in the operation of institutional investors, the problems may be more prevalent and harder to detect within institutional investors. For instance, they may place deposits in banks that lend to related com- panies, thus providing funds in an indirect way. In addition, institutional investors may favor subscribing for securities underwritten by related banks, thus boosting banks’ underwriting spreads. Institutional Investors and Agency Issues 299 A substantial literature has explored the benefits and problems arising from the impact of business groups on corporate control. In fact, in most countries business groups are the prevalent form of corporate organiza- tion. In that regard, the United States is largely an exception (La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, and Shliefer 1999). Most typically, these groups are organized as control pyramids, especially in Latin America. Control pyramids and other corporate groups may have positive effects by helping overcome market frictions prevalent in developing countries, providing insurance across firms within the pyramid, and facilitating mon- itoring of individual business units. These structures, however, also entail potential problems. Some of the most important are those related to the agency issues and conflicts of interest that arise from the separation of cash flow and control rights typical of these corporate structures.35 One of the agency issues arising from the presence of business groups in Latin American financial sectors relates to the possibility of tunneling. The lit- erature uses this term to refer to the movement of resources from firms in the corporate structure (where the controller has relatively few cash-flow rights) to firms where cash-flow rights are higher. These movements may take the form of business transactions or the provision of capital at below market prices. Tunneling may clearly be a problem in the relationship between banks and related firms, and it may also be a problem for institutional investors. These investors could bias their portfolios toward related firms beyond what is consistent with risk-return maximization, easing their placing of shares or bonds and, therefore, their access to credit. Regulation typically tries to contain this type of portfolio bias by placing caps on the portfolio share a fund can invest in related firms. Latin American countries are no exception, with most of them containing some form of restrictions on these types of activities. However, the complexity of the ownership structures in many Latin American countries, which mix control pyramids with horizontal and vertical cross-holdings, makes the enforcement of these rules difficult (Yermo 2000; Morck, Wolfenzon, and Yeung. 2005; Khanna 2000). Whether Latin American supervisors have the regulatory capacity to control this possible behavior needs to be addressed on a case- by-case basis.36 In addition to portfolio biases, there are other, more subtle ways in which tunneling may occur. For instance, while most regulations restrict the amount a fund can invest in the securities of related companies, the amounts placed as deposits in different banks are much less restricted. Therefore, a fund that has a relationship with a bank, as is common in Latin America, may privilege this bank when investing in deposits, despite differences in interest rates, or may decide to invest more in deposits than recommended for the management of short-term liquidity needs. Thus, a pension or mutual fund could serve as a liquidity provider for related banks, increasing their operating margins.37 There is no systematic 300 emerging issues in financial development evidence of this behavior, but the large amount held in bank deposits by Chilean pension and mutual funds (see tables 6.6 and 6.7) indicates that this could be a potentially important problem (Opazo, Raddatz, and Schmukler 2009).38 In addition, as shown in figure 6.2, the instruments of financial institutions (mainly deposits) also represent a large percentage of pension fund portfolios in other Latin American countries. Beyond liquidity provision or direct purchases of the securities issued by related parties, there are multiple other ways that institutional investors can use their assets under management to benefit related financial com- panies. For instance, they can boost the profitability of the underwriting arms of related banks by subscribing for the issues where these banks are involved. This type of bias would unlikely be affected by most regula- tory frameworks because the issuer is an unrelated company, but it could increase the underwriting spread obtained by the investment bank. This Table 6.6 Share of Deposits in Portfolios of Chilean Pension Fund Administrators, by Pension Fund Category, 2002–05 Mean Minimum Maximum (%) (%) (%) Fund A (40 percent