If any further proof were needed that a sound financial sector is a key to the stability and growth of an economy it can be seen in how the 2009 crisis flowed out from problems in the financial sector of the developed world. In particular, low domestic savings and underdeveloped private capital markets in Latin American countries make firms and households highly dependent on the financial system.10 We therefore look now at how the financial systems of Latin America have weathered the crisis and then how they might be developed and deepened in the face of the current economic background.
