National Development Banks In South America

This book features an in-depth comparative study of South American National Development Bank’s governance systems. It explores the relationship between bank governance and performance frameworks, both in terms of financial-economic indicators and development impact. It seeks to observe, analyze, and compare governance arrangements used by different development banks as tools to overcome the challenges associated with state-ownership while remaining financially sustainable and aligned with their policy mandates.

For a long time the topic of national development banks was limited to a debate between admirers and detractors of these institutions, often inserted into a more general debate of state versus markets. Since the 2007/8 North Atlantic financial crisis however, interest and support for these institutions has broadly increased in both developing and developed countries. Key issues such as understanding how development banks work, what their main aims are, and what their links with the private financial and corporate sector are have come to the forefront, and there is an increased interest in what instruments, incentives, and governance work better in general and in particular contexts. The Future of National Development Banks provides an in-depth study of several key examples of these institutions based in Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Germany, Mexico, and Peru. It explores horizontal issues such as their role in innovation and structural change, sustainable infrastructure financing, financial inclusion, and regulatory rules. It provides both research and policy-oriented perspectives on how these banks can make a significant contribution to a countries' development, and analyses their roles within broader economic policy, their governance, and the main instruments they use to perform their function. The Future of National Development Banks has important policy implications for countries that have these institutions and can improve them, and countries that do not have them yet and can learn from best practice.

This reissue, initially published in 1984, examines the evolution of international financial flows to Latin America since 1945, along with their implications for National Development . The book describes how, in each of the first three decades since the war, a new agency emerged (foreign investors in the 1950s, official aid agencies in the 1960s and multinational banks in the 1970s) which was willing to play a dynamic role in generating new financial flows to the region. The lack of such an agent in the 1980s, combined with a reluctance on the part of former investors to maintain their level of assistance culminated in an economic debt crisis in Latin America which this work seeks to address, asking the crucial question: what measures should be taken – both nationally and internationally – to deal with this critical issue , in a way that will both encourage Latin American Development and avoid a major international financial crisis?