Above: Claughton House in Nassau (Photo: CJ)
By the Caribbean Journal staff
A large majority of banks in the Latin American and Caribbean region consider small- and medium-sized enterprises a strong part of their business, and plan to increase their credit portfolio for this sector in the next two years.
The data comes from a survey of 190 regional banks by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Latin American Banking Federation, with 73 percent expecting an increase in their SME portfolio, and 83 percent expecting the economic situation of these businesses to improve in the next two years.
According to the survey, banks in the Caribbean and Central America are the biggest beneficiaries of international credit lines and financing from international institutions.
The survey was conducted by Argentine consulting firm D’Alessio, with contributions from the Inter-American Investment Corporation, the beyondBanking programme and the Multilateral Investment Fund; all three are private sector windows of the IDB.