S&P Global Market Intelligence presents the week's latest news and trends in Latin American banking.
Deal rundown
* Chile's Banco de Credito e Inversiones SA received all of the necessary approvals for its $528 million purchase of Miami-based TotalBank and plans to close the deal in the coming days. Bci is purchasing TotalBank through its U.S.-based City National Bank of Florida unit.
* Scotiabank Chile launched a tender offer worth $3.01 billion to acquire all of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Chile SA's shares as it moves to the last stages of its purchase of the bank. Under the plan, Scotiabank unit Nova Scotia Inversiones Ltda. offers to buy 100%, or 413,822,027, of BBVA Chile's shares.
* The integration between Citibank - Colombia SA and local Scotiabank unit Banco Colpatria Multibanca Colpatria SA could reportedly start as soon as this month following the expected authorization by Colombia's financial regulator. Colpatria looks to acquire Citi's local consumer business and small and medium enterprise operations.
* Cristiane Alkmin Schmidt, a board member of Brazilian competition watchdog Cade, requested that the central bank reject the approval of Itaú Unibanco Holding SA's purchase of a 49.9% stake in brokerage firm XP Investimentos SA. Among several reasons, Schmidt believes that the transaction poses a threat on the advancement of unbanking in the country.
Going public
* Brazil-based Banco Inter SA closed its IPO of preferred shares, raising about 722 million reais. In aggregate, the bank sold 39,024,392 preferred shares at a price of 18.50 reais apiece.
* Banco Agibank SA set the price range for its planned IPO at between 13.87 and 16.96 reais per share. The offering would raise about 2.50 billion reais if the shares are priced at 15.41 reais apiece, the midpoint of the indicative range.
Argentina, IMF reach deal
* The International Monetary Fund and Argentina reached a three-year, $50 billion standby arrangement meant to address the country's fiscal concerns. The terms of the IMF's cash injection include Argentina restoring the primary fiscal balance by 2020 and further tackling inflation.
The IMF is also pushing for increased central bank independence in a bid to prevent repeats of past instances where governments leaned on the bank to print money to plug fiscal holes.
Crimes and fines
* Chilean cryptocurrency trader Orionx filed a suit against six leading banks for alleged abuse of dominant position, specifically for excluding the company from the digital payment market. Orionx demanded that Banco del Estado de Chile, one of the respondents, reopens the cryptocurrency trader's account.
* Itaú will appeal a lower court decision ordering the bank to pay 7.6 billion reais in a case involving accusations that the lender charged undue fees. Itaú will also reportedly continue the appeals process in a separate case in which tax appeals board CARF recently upheld a tax assessment of 2.7 billion reais tied to the 2008 merger between Itaú and Unibanco.
* Alejandro Díaz de León, the governor of Banco de México, expects prosecutors to be close to making arrests over the cyberattacks on the central bank's payment system SPEI in April and May.
* In light of the virus attack that hit Banco de Chile late in May, the country's banking regulator SBIF laid down recommendations for banks during cyberattacks.
Earnings digest
* Banco Davivienda SA and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Colombia SA posted annual increases in their first-quarter net income of 39.4% and 39.2%, respectively.
Featured this week on S&P Global Market Intelligence
* Hires and Fires: A weekly rundown of executive management, board and other personnel moves at Latin American financial institutions.
* Ratings Roundup: A summary of various ratings actions on Latin American financial institutions and economies.
