* Banco de Credito e Inversiones SA has gained authorization from Chilean financial regulator SBIF for its $528-million purchase of Miami-based TotalBank, and plans to close the deal in the coming days. It previously garnered approvals from both the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the United States and Banco Central de Chile.
* Banco Agibank SA set the price range for its initial public offering at between 13.87 Brazilian reais and 16.95 reais per share. The bank and its shareholders would raise around 2.5 billion reais if the offering is priced at the midpoint of the indicative range. According to Reuters, the stock market debut would value the online lender at around 10 billion reais, or 6x its book value, at the midpoint of the range.
MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA
* Mexican central bank Governor Alejandro Díaz de León expects prosecutors to be close to making arrests over the cyberattacks on the central bank's payment system in April and May, Reforma reported. Prosecutors have identified some of the accounts and names involved in the attacks, where hackers are thought to have siphoned around 300 million pesos.
* Mexico will turn to the World Trade Organization to settle a trade dispute after the U.S. set tariffs of 25% and 10% on steel and aluminum exports, respectively, Reuters reported. Mexico is also going to set a 20% tariff on pork imports form the U.S., two sources with direct knowledge of the plan told the newswire.
* The death toll from the eruption of the Volcán del Fuego in Guatemala has risen to at least 65, The Wall Street Journal reported. More than 3,000 people have been evacuated.
* Banco do Nordeste do Brasil SA's board elected Aloísio Barbosa de Carvalho Neto as chief finance and credit officer effective within 30 days from his appointment, to replace Romildo Carneiro Rolim, who was appointed as the state-run bank's president in April. Cláudio Luiz Freire Lima will remain as interim chief finance and credit officer until Barbosa de Carvalho Neto starts his term.
* Economists polled by Reuters forecast inflation in Brazil was up 2.73% for the year through May, lower than the 2.76% rate recorded at the end of April, Reuters reported.
* Brazil's state-controlled oil company Petrobras said it had taken out a credit facility worth 2 billion reais with Banco Bradesco SA that is guaranteed with a public bond, Valor Econômico reported. The credit line will create an additional source of liquidity for the company to use as needed. It will expire in June 2023 and will cost 0.4% to maintain per annum.
* Itaúsa - Investimentos Itaú SA said it sold off all the shares it holds in chemical company Elekeiroz SA to Kilimanjaro Brasil Partners I B - Fundo de Investimento em Participações Multiestratégia Investimento no Exterior, receiving 95.871 centavos per share. The stake amounted to 14,261,761 common and 16,117,360 preferred shares, or 98.2% and 95.0% of common and preferred stock, respectively.
ANDEAN
* Peruvian Finance Minister David Tuesta resigned from his position after only two months on the job, Reuters reported. Tuesta had pushed for higher fuel taxes, but President Martin Vizcarra promised to maintain them at current levels amid truckers' protests, Reuters reported.
* Colombia's Banco Davivienda SA, which accounts for 53% of all mobile banking transactions in the country, is about to launch online credit operations, the lender's vice president for innovation, Óscar Rodríguez, told La República.
SOUTHERN CONE
* S&P Global Ratings affirmed Argentina's long- and short-term sovereign credit ratings at B+ and B, respectively, the transfer and convertibility assessment at BB-, and the raAA national-scale ratings. The outlook on the long-term rating remains stable. DBRS likewise confirmed Argentina's long-term foreign and local currency issuer ratings at B and B(high), respectively. The rating agency also confirmed the short-term foreign and local currency issuer ratings at R-4, while the trend on all ratings remains stable.
* Negotiations between the International Monetary Fund and Argentina over financial support for the country's economic plan are "well advanced," according to a statement from the IMF. Given Argentina's $4.5-billion IMF quota, the minimum value of a financing deal would be $19.7 billion, or at least $6.75 billion per year, Reuters reported.
* A poll of analysts by Argentina's central bank at the end of May found median inflation estimates of 27.1% for full-year 2018, up from an estimate of 22% in April, Reuters reported. The growth projection for 2018 also fell to 1.3% from 2.5%.
* Argentine farming leaders will ask the country's banks for $5 billion in financing for the next agricultural season "at a reasonable rate," La Nación reported, citing industry sources. A meeting between farming groups and the Adeba and ABA banking industry associations is due to take place today.
* The government of Argentina's Buenos Aires province is to launch a credit line for small and medium-sized companies, including self-employed professionals, La Nación reported. It said a total of about 11.2 billion pesos would be available in loans at rates of between 20% and 25% per annum. Payment terms will be between five and eight years.
* Three digital banks are about to start operating in Argentina, La Nación reported. Wilobank could launch at the end of June, while TSA Banking plans to begin operating from the third quarter. Brubank, the fintech founded by former Citi Argentina CEO Juan Bruchou, expects to debut its services in June or July.
* Chilean finance and commerce industry groups have called for changes to legislation setting a ceiling on maximum interest rates, the so-called TMC, after regulatory data suggested it had forced more than 200,000 low-income Chileans out of the banking sector to look for more accessible credit elsewhere, La Tercera reported.
* Banco de Chile, which has come under pressure over its handling of a computer virus that brought down branch systems last month, has filed a formal report about the case with regulatory authorities, Diario Financiero reported. Finance Minister Felipe Larrain said the issue was being closely monitored by the country's banking industry supervisor and would likely be raised by the country's Financial Stability Council.
PAN LATIN AMERICA
* Recently observed weaknesses in the currencies of emerging markets, including in Latin America, are credit negative especially for countries with large external funding needs, Moody's said.
* Banco Bradesco SA could expand its operations in Argentina in the short term as it looks to cater to the Brazilian companies present in the country, Infomoney reported, citing CEO Octavio de Lazari Jr. The executive noted Argentina "is the most attractive market in the region to invest in," adding that Bradesco is planning to grow as a commercial bank in Argentina, without acquisitions or partnerships with other institutions.
IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD
* Asia-Pacific: Japan's Daido Life in Australian M&A; Fitch downgrades Punjab National Bank
* Middle East & Africa: Cerberus bids for Abraaj's PE unit; Deutsche Bank to scale back in South Africa
* Europe: UK raises £2.51B from RBS stake sale; SocGen settles US probes for $1.35B
Helen Popper contributed to this article.
This S&P Global Market Intelligence news article may contain information about credit ratings issued by S&P Global Ratings, a separately managed division of S&P Global. Descriptions in this news article were not prepared by S&P Global Ratings.
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