* Peruvian development bank Corporación Financiera de Desarrollo SA, or Cofide, seeks to contest a legal ruling that ordered the bank to pay $34.2 million in damages to mining firm Minera IRL over the bank's decision to cancel a loan contract, Gestión reported. Cofide said in a statement that the court that ordered the payment had no jurisdiction over the case.
* Banco do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul SA said it lowered the number of common shares in its upcoming secondary offering to 71,350,686 from 96,323,426, Reuters reported. The offering will be priced today.
MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA
* The Mexican insurance industry grew 8.6% in the first half of the year, registering about 307.10 billion Mexican pesos in terms of premiums, El Economista reported, citing the CNSF insurance and annuity commission.
* Mexican payment aggregator Conekta will not seek approval to operate as a fintech under the country's fintech law, joining the local unit of PayPal and several virtual currency platforms in opting not to seek a fintech license, El Economista reported, citing Conekta founder Héctor Cárdenas.
BRAZIL
* Banco BTG Pactual SA's liquidity and funding profile is strong, making the investment bank resilient to recent developments in the Lava Jato corruption investigation, according to Fitch Ratings. The bank's headquarters and addresses belonging to former CEO Andre Esteves were recently raided by police, but the likelihood of a ratings downgrade is low and declining, Fitch said.
* Tecnologia Bancária SA, which operates the interbank ATM network Banco24Horas, is building a system with digital banks and fintechs to facilitate their access to the network, which would help reduce the cost of everyday operations for the companies, Reuters reported, citing Tiago Aguiar, the manager of TecBan's new platforms area.
* Banco Votorantim SA raised $850 million in a bond sale on Sept. 17, exceeding the $600 million original estimate, Valor Econômico reported, citing two sources with knowledge of the operation.
* Brazilian brokerage firm Necton is set to announce that it will assume Coinvalores CCVM LTDA's portfolio, worth 2.5 billion reais, Valor Econômico reported, citing sources with knowledge of the talks. The transaction does not include any exchange of equity and Coinvalores will continue to exist.
* Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social CEO Gustavo Montezano said the bank does foresee completing any privatizations in 2019, although asset disposals are likely to accelerate in 2020, Reuters reported. The state-run development bank has been tasked with supporting the Brazilian government's privatization program.
ANDEAN
* Colombia's Banco de Occidente SA has formed an alliance with insurer Seguros Generales Suramericana SA to offer a fully digital compulsory road accident policy, La República reported.
* Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's administration has implemented a number of free-market policies in recent months, including cutting back on the printing of new money, almost ending wage hikes, and effectively stopping the enforcement of price controls, The Wall Street Journal reported. The strategy offers slight hope for an economy that is expected to contract up to 35% in 2019.
SOUTHERN CONE
* Dollar deposits in Argentina have gone up for the first time since the August primary election, when anxious savers pulled their cash out of the bank, El Cronista reported, citing the latest central bank data. Dollar deposits, which have fallen by a third since the election, inched up by $16 million on Sept. 13 to about $22.58 billion. The Sept. 13 expiry of a Lete Treasury note – much of which was held by local investors – may have reportedly explained the increase.
* Argentina's central bank has started accepting one-day repos from common investment funds, or FCIs, a move aimed at improving transmission of its monetary policy rate to the market, El Cronista reported. It said the measure, which was launched on Sept. 16 in a bid to boost the liquidity of FCIs, had also driven local banks to raise the interest rates they pay on deposits.
* Uruguay's economy grew 0.1% year on year in the second quarter and expanded 0.3% compared to the linked quarter, El País reported, citing the latest official GDP data.
PAN LATIN AMERICA
* Recession fears among global fund managers have increased to the highest level in a decade, according to BofA Merrill Lynch International Ltd.'s Global Fund Manager Survey for September. While still in the minority, 38% of investors surveyed expect a recession over the next 12 months, compared with 59% of investors who believe a downturn is unlikely, yielding the highest net reading for recession risk since August 2009.
* World Bank Group President David Malpass warned that real global economic growth for 2019 could fall short of the 2.6% rate predicted in June, amid an environment of low or negative yields. Malpass said the slowdown in global growth is broad-based, pointing to "substantial downturns" in Argentina, India and Mexico.
IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD
* Asia-Pacific: ADB confirms president resignation; investors eye new Chinese bank
* Middle East & Africa: Israel's tight election; Moody's expects Islamic finance in Africa to grow
* Europe: Metro Bank execs probed; HSBC French unit under review; Lloyd's H1 profit up
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. Links are current as of publication time, and we are not responsible if those links are unavailable later.
