Inter-American Development Bank Office of the Chief Economist Working Paper Green Series #347 Capital Requirements for Latin American Banks in Relation to their Market Risks: The Relevance of the Basle 1996 Amendment to Latin America

This paper was largely written whilst the first author was a visitor in the Office of the Chief Economist, Inter-American Development Bank, Washington DC. The authors would like to thank all the staff of the IDB that gave assistance to this work. The first author would also like to acknowledge support from the UK Economic and Social Research Council’s, Global Economic Institutions Research Initiative. The contents of the paper draw on work completed in the Central Bank of Argentina area of Economía y Finanzas. Special thanks are due to Gabriel Lopetegui for his work in this area. We would also like to thank Miguel Kiguel, Astrid Dick and Liliana Schumacher in particular for their valuable contributions. All mistakes however remain those of the authors. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the President nor the Directors of the Central Bank