Spanish Banks in Latin America: Do They Need Each Other?

Introduction The deep changes that the economies of Latin America underwent in recent years (opening, liberalization, privatization of state-owned enterprises and deregulation) created a new business environment. One of the main aspects of this process was the large inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI). The amount of inward FDI in Latin America in the second half of the 1990s was unprecedented. Multinational enterprises (MNEs), mainly European ones, became market leaders in some of the main activities, mainly in services and infrastructure (see Figure 7.1).