Guatemala's congress has passed a law that creates a new regulatoryframework for the country's microfinance sector, Prensa Libre reported April 12.

The new law creates regulatory perimeters for several operationalareas of the sector, including the requirement that microfinance institutions willneed to be established as corporations and meet specific capital levels, the reportnoted.

Separately, Guatemala's congress said April 12 that it proposeda law that eliminates bank secrecy in an effort to improve transparency and increasetax revenues.

"This is an important step because it can determine whetheran institution is managing its finances in an abnormal way, which will help improvetax collection," the president of the finance committee, Jairo Flores, saidin a statement.