ABSTRACT
Dollarization in the 1970s and 1980s, banking crises in the 1980s and 1990s, and the Global Financial Crisis in the first decade of this century have all changed the main parameters of financial competition in the largest Latin American countries (LAc). Financial structures have changed as well, meaning that the financing relationships between banks and domestic firms have too. In addition, marketorientated policies have deeply changed economies, including the role of public credit, the ownership of public and domestic firms, and also the foreign financing of the local affiliates of global firms. It has not been an abrupt change. It has taken time and has adapted to changing political conditions.
