S&P Global Market Intelligence presents the week's latest news and trends in Latin American banking.
Earnings highlights
* BBVA Bancomer SA Institución de Banca Múltiple Grupo Financiero BBVA Bancomer booked net income of 9.80 billion Mexican pesos for the fourth quarter of 2017, up 39.6% from the year-ago period. The bank plans to disburse 60.0 billion pesos in real estate credit in 2018.
* Banco Santander (México) SA Institución de Banca Múltiple's profit for the fourth-quarter hit about 4.52 billion pesos, down just 0.6% from the year-ago period. Parent Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA is expecting high-single-digit growth in net interest income in its largest market, Mexico, in 2018, despite a slight slowdown in lending in the country during the fourth quarter.
* Grupo Financiero Inbursa SAB de CV's fourth-quarter profit grew 18% from a year earlier as it reached about 6.88 billion pesos.
* Banco del Bajío SA Institución de Banca Múltiple booked consolidated net income of about 1.12 billion Mexican pesos for the fourth quarter, up 75% from the year-ago period.
* Banco Bradesco SA reported recurring net income of about 4.86 billion Brazilian reais for the fourth quarter, 10.9% higher from a year earlier. The bank will launch a cost-cutting program in 2018 to help the bank improve profitability following a contraction in corporate credit.
* Banco Santander (Brasil) SA posted a managerial net profit, which excludes one-time items, of about 2.75 billion reais for the fourth quarter, up 38% compared to the year-ago period. The bank said it will not make an initial IPO of card-payment processor Getnet Tecnologia, nor will it sell a stake in the unit despite the recent successful initial offering of competitor PagSeguro Digital Ltd.
* Banco de Chile posted net income attributable to its owners of 142.35 billion Chilean pesos for the fourth quarter, 14.8% higher year over year.
* Banco Santander Chile's fourth-quarter profit increased 24.0% from a year earlier to reach about 134.68 billion pesos. The bank aims to open 100 local branches in the next five years.
* The profits of Banco de Credito e Inversiones SA for the fourth quarter slid 34.16% year over year to 56.63 billion pesos.
Deal buzz
* Colombia's Banco Colpatria Multibanca Colpatria SA, a unit of Bank of Nova Scotia, signed an agreement to acquire Citibank - Colombia SA's consumer business and small and medium enterprise operations.
* Itaú Unibanco Holding SA expects its Latin American business to contribute more than 10% of overall profit once the integration of the operations of Itaú CorpBanca in Chile and Colombia is completed.
Crimes and fines
* A Brazilian federal court has reportedly ordered to detain José Carlos Xavier de Oliveira, the former CEO of Bank of New York Mellon Corp.'s Brazilian unit, as part of a probe into graft allegations involving the Postalis pension fund.
* Brazilian securities and exchange commission CVM filed a lawsuit against BTG Pactual Group and asset management firm Garde over allegations of manipulation of prices in the dollar futures market through "spoofing."
* An executive at Banque Heritage (Uruguay) SA is reportedly under investigation for allegedly embezzling funds from the bank's Argentine clients.
* Caixa Econômica Federal said the loans it made to states and municipalities meet lending standards after facing inquiries on the legality of the credit operations.
Regulatory avenue
* Brazil's national monetary council approved a resolution requiring local lenders to perform client satisfaction surveys in order to evaluate the performance of their ombudsmen, the central bank said.
* Peru's Congress will vote on a bill seeking to heighten oversight among local savings and credit cooperatives, known as coopacs, this week.
* A Brazilian law allowing financial cooperatives to work with local government entities and companies should help the sector expand by more than 20% in 2018 and 2019, according to Diário Comércio Indústria & Serviços.
Rating agencies weigh in
* Latin American banks will have better prospects in 2018 despite facing downside risks, especially in the political sphere, S&P Global Ratings said.
* New measures that will revitalize the capitalization of Caixa are credit positive for the bank, Moody's said.
In other news
* Banco Inter SA will reportedly file for an IPO in the coming weeks.
* Banco BTG Pactual SA and Caixa Participações SA have renewed a shareholder's agreement that was set to expire next year enabling them to continue as co-controllers of Banco Pan SA.
* Banco BTG Pactual sees an opportunity to grow its loan portfolio as state-run banks in Brazil retrench, said Vice Chairman Huw Jenkins.
* Employees of Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires announced a four-day strike in a continued protest of a pension reform for workers at the bank, which includes raising the retirement age of its staff to 65 years.
* Caixa is preparing to launch another voluntary redundancy program this year.
Featured this week on S&P Global Market Intelligence
* Brazil's major banks set to post higher Q4'17 profits as loan demand recovers: Analysts expect the three largest listed banks in Brazil to post higher fourth-quarter and full-year 2017 profits compared to a year earlier amid a recovery in loan demand spurred by the country's ongoing economic revival.
* 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.
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