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Ecuador VP jailed in graft case; Itaú to buy back up to 1.18B reais of shares

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Ecuador VP jailed in graft case; Itaú to buy back up to 1.18B reais of shares

* Ecuador Vice President Jorge Glas has been sentenced to six years in jail after a court found him guilty of providing state contracts to Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht in return for bribes, Reuters reported.

* Itaú Unibanco Holding SA said it has agreed to participate in an auction to repurchase up to 31,793,134 of its common shares being sold by Fundação Antônio e Helena Zerrenner – Instituição Nacional de Beneficência. The bank will acquire the shares for the maximum price of 37 reais each. The total price will reach about 1.18 billion Brazilian reais if Itaú repurchases all of the shares.

MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA

* S&P Global Ratings assigned BB-/B global scale issuer credit ratings to Banco de Costa Rica, with a negative outlook. The ratings reflect the bank's strong market position as the second-largest lender in Costa Rica in terms of loans and deposits, with stable revenues from a diversified business.

* Mexico's finance ministry, central bank and securities regulator said cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are not a legal form of payment in the country, adding that certain initial coin offerings could constitute a violation of local financial law, Reuters reported.

* Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said Mexico and the European Union are still sorting out differences over agricultural market access, but the two sides could agree to a framework for a trade pact by the end of 2017, Reuters reported.

* Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico SAB de CV CEO Héctor Grisi Checa said the bank is well-prepared to face any uncertainty in 2018 resulting from the renegotiation of the NAFTA trade deal, presidential elections in Mexico and fiscal reforms in the U.S., El Economista reported.

* Mexican insurance and risk consulting group 4P/MX has signed a merger deal with Integra Agente de Seguros y Fianzas, El Economista reported, citing 4P/MX director Vicente Ariztegui Legorreta. Through the deal, 4P/MX expects to become one of Mexico's top 10 insurance companies in the coming years.

CARIBBEAN

* Republic Financial Holdings Ltd. said it listed 22,002 ordinary shares on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange, increasing the company's issued share capital to 162,467,290 ordinary shares.

BRAZIL

* Cielo SA's board of directors approved the payment of interest on shareholders' equity for up to 318.2 million reais for the second half of 2017. The board also approved the resignations of Alberto Monteiro de Queiroz Netto as a director and Luciano Daniel Simões Caurim as a member of the executive board.

* Credit recovery in Brazil declined 1.5% in the period from January through November compared to the same period a year ago, according to research credit firm Boa Vista SCPC.

* Stock exchange operator B3 SA – Brasil Bolsa Balcão said it will start using a new trading name of B3, replacing the current BMFBOVESPA, starting from Dec. 18 to better reflect its new corporate identity. The company will change its ticker symbol to B3SA3 from the current BVMF3 on March 26, 2018.

* The offices and homes of two members of Brazil's Congress, Dulce Miranda and Carlos Gaguim, were raided by police on Dec. 13 as part of a corruption probe dubbed "Operation Ápia," Reuters reported.

* A deal reached by Brazilian banks to reimburse depositors who suffered losses as a result of government economic plans in the 1980s and 1990s will result in the injection of around 5 billion reais into the country's economy in 2018, Folha de S.Paulo reported.

* Brazilian central bank President Ilan Goldfajn said the bank has set up a working group to explore ways to increase debit card usage and reduce associated costs for retailers, Folha de S.Paulo reported.

* Large Brazilian companies, including some that have experienced financial problems recently, have been approaching local banks to negotiate early loan repayments, banking sources told Reuters.

ANDEAN

* Fitch Ratings lowered the long-term national ratings of several Venezuelan banks after downgrading the country's sovereign ratings. The banks include Banco Nacional de Crédito CA Banco Universal, Banesco Banco Universal CA, Banco Exterior CA Banco Universal, Banco del Caribe CA Banco Universal and Mercantil CA Banco Universal.

* Opposition parties in Venezuela accused Banco De Desarrollo De América Latina of funding a dictatorship after the Latin American development bank approved a $400 million credit line for the country's central bank, Reuters reported.

* Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht paid $4.8 million to companies associated with Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski between 2004 and 2012, Reuters reported, citing a document the scandal-plagued firm sent to Congress. Kuczynski denied any wrongdoing but did not deny the transfers taking place.

* The total credit portfolio of Colombian banks totaled about 433 trillion Colombian pesos at the end of October, up 2.17% from a year earlier in real terms, Portafolio reported, citing regulatory data.

SOUTHERN CONE

* Banco Supervielle SA's board approved a capital contribution to Cordial Compañía Financiera SA in the amount of 570.0 million Argentine pesos.

* Argentina's unemployment rate fell to 8.3% in the third quarter from 8.7% in the linked quarter and 8.5% in the year-ago period, Reuters reported, citing the government statistics agency Indec.

* Argentina reopened its local currency "Boncer" bond for 27.35 billion Argentine pesos, Reuters reported. The bond matures in 2020 and carries an interest rate of Argentine inflation plus 2.25%.

* Argentina's central bank warned that the liquidity position of the country's banking sector is gradually weakening due to strong growth in lending, El Cronista reported. State-run banks will start charging higher interest rates on UVA inflation-indexed mortgage loans next year to meet financing needs and to combat falling liquidity levels, the publication reported separately.

* Paraguayan banking association Asoban is working on a proposal to allow the maximum annual interest rate on credit cards to rise to 30% in 2018 from 13.61% currently, 5días reported.

* Eric Parrado, the head of Chilean banking regulator SBIF, said Bank of Nova Scotia has not yet submitted a formal request for the SBIF to approve its announced acquisition of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Chile SA, Pulso reported.

PAN LATIN AMERICA

* The World Trade Organization's biennial ministerial conference ended Dec. 13 without any substantive agreements among the 164 members. "Progress was going to require a leap in members' positions. We didn't see that," Reuters quoted WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo as saying.

S&P Global Ratings and S&P Global Market Intelligence are owned by S&P Global Inc.

Helen Popper contributed to this article.

The Daily Dose has an editorial deadline of 8:00 a.m. São Paulo time, and scans news sources published in English, Portuguese and Spanish. Some external links may require a subscription.