Stylized Facts on the Quality of Banking Regulation in Latin America and the Caribbean

This paper was also published by the Inter-American Development Bank. The IDB version is available here. 

This paper presents findings from a comprehensive survey of 18 central banks and banking supervisor authorities in Latin America and the Caribbean, including major economies like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. The survey aimed to assess the adoption of the Basel III standards across the region and revealed significant diversity in regulatory capital frameworks. Notably, while 75 percent of respondent countries have adopted Basel III for some financial intermediaries, 44 percent still maintain hybrid systems allowing for Basel I or II standards. These results highlight the region's varied approach to financial regulation, pointing to both progress in adopting international standards and the persistence of legacy regulatory regimes. The detailed findings and constructed indexes provide valuable insights into the state of financial regulation in the region, reflecting a landscape of both convergence and divergence in banking supervision practices.