Latin American Capital Markets: Deciphering the Market Opportunity

The Latin American capital markets have been of great interest to leading global financial institutions and vendors alike. Brazil is the largest economy and largest banking system in Latin America, followed by Mexico. Among the four markets studied, Chile performs the best overall when comparing the socioeconomic and market competitiveness indicators.

A number of countries in the region have begun the process of modernization in their capital markets. While this transition has not been uniform across the region, the markets have begun moving in the right direction and are opening up to global investment more than ever before.

In the report Latin American Capital Markets: Deciphering the Market Opportunity, Celent looks at the recent performance of some of the leading capital markets in the region. There has been a spurt of activity geared toward expanding and modernizing the existing capital market infrastructure. Regulators have also been involved in this regard in most of the markets in the region. This is illustrated in their emphasis on making the infrastructure more efficient and competitive, and in encouraging local exchanges and brokerages to adopt more advanced global technologies. The relatively high rates of growth the region in the last decade or so have also been a factor, although the economies have been slowing down recently.

“When looking at Latin America, it is important to remember that there are large differences between the leading national capital markets, including in terms of regulation and the level of development,” says Dr. Anshuman Jaswal, a senior analyst with Celent’s Securities & Investments practice and author of the report. “But several leading global firms are rightly investing in the region’s capital markets, and we expect this trend to continue in the next few years.”

This is the first of a three-report series. It provides an introduction to some of the leading capital markets, namely, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Chile, and compares them across parameters such as market and socioeconomic indicators, and size distribution of local brokerage and asset management firms. The report assesses the vendor landscape comprising international and domestic firms. The second and third reports of the series look at the Brazilian and Mexican markets, respectively. They provide an overview of the leading sell side and buy side players, market trends and characteristics, important market drivers, and the IT spending estimates.