ABSTRACT
Introduction Until 2008 developing countries systematically fared worse during nancial crises. A er Mexico declared a moratorium on foreign debt in 1982, most of Latin America remained mired in a lost decade. During the 1990s the global south and east experienced nancial crises in a seemingly endless sequence: Mexico, 1994-5; Asia, 1997; Russia, 1998; Brazil, 1999; Argentina and Turkey, 2001; Brazil, 2002-3. In 2007 panic in US nancial markets quickly spread around the globe, only to nd that BRIC countries were better prepared to counter shocks and resume growth. is chapter explores our ndings about Brazilian federal government banks (that, since liberalization, they have modernized and realized competitive advantages to provide critical policy alternatives, most notably against crisis and for social inclusion) compared to Russia, India and China.1 Further research will be required; other factors mattered and barriers to competition remain, especially in Russia and China. However, evidence from monetary authorities and comparison of bank balance sheets suggest that BRIC government banks did indeed realize competitive advantages over private and foreign banks during the 2000s, just in time to provide counter-cyclical credit in 2008. And contrary to biases in micro nance studies against the public sector, BRIC government banks have helped accelerate nancial inclusion through new policies and technologies.
