Sustainable Financial Products in the Latin America Banking Industry: Current Status and Insights

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyse the extant literature on sustainable financial products (SFP) with a comprehensive understanding of the status quo and research trends as well as characterise the existing SFP in the Latin America banking industry. In this way, research papers derived from Scopus as well as institutional reports such as main documents, sustainability reports, and product portfolios publicly available on webpages from public, private, and development banks are used to create a database of SFP where their main characteristics are included and classified. Based on the research trends identified, the results show the development of financial products focused on environmental, social, and government (ESG) matters, mainly from the credit side, of more sustainable financial markets and products under fintech ecosystems. The results show that because of regulatory and government support through mechanisms such as green protocols and social and environmental responsibility policies, private financial institutions of Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina have led the development of both social and green financial products. These study’s findings may be used for several policymakers to broaden the opportunities available in sustainable financing and thus, provide a roadmap that researchers and practicing professionals can use to improve their understanding of SFP. Finally, the study presents the potential for further research in the field, both with a qualitative and a quantitative approach.

Analyzing the Impacts of Financial Services Regulation to Make the Case That Buy-Now-Pay-Later Regulation Is Failing

“…Avoiding these failures reflects an absolute minimum of an operating financial services regulatory regime. Regulatory support for green protocols and social and environmental responsibility policies have been making some progress in Latin America and would represent a proactive approach to fintech regulation [56]. But if the regulatory ecosystem itself is not operating well, it may be difficult to reliably progress to more sustainable goals.…”

“…Further, regulators may also want to consider regulations and actions occurring in other jurisdictions and assess whether such interventions may be useful in their own context (e.g., the interventions occurring in California [47]). In conducting any reviews of fintech regulation, regulators may also want to be proactive and incorporate regulations that facilitate sustainable financial services practices [56].…”

“…So, it is in the interest of specific forms of fintech to consider appropriate regulation and reconnect to the social fabric by having social utility. In time, regulators may move beyond relatively reactive approaches to proactively regulating financial services and move on to adopt more sustainable practices that require financial services and fintech services to rethink their businesses and move ahead to more sustainable business models [56].…”

Russian Banking Sector Under the Influence of Fintech Innovations

“…The main advantages of implementing innovative technologies and a unified biometric system include: improving the quality of the loan portfolio by reducing delays in loan repayments; increasing the bank's income and profit [22]; increasing the number of customers who use banking services [23]; accurate and objective identification of borrowers.…”

Estudio sobre opciones de financiación para las pequeñas y medianas empresas de la ciudad de Medellín

“…Cabe resaltar que este sector empresarial, a pesar de brindar tantos beneficios a la economía del país, se ve limitado en sus esfuerzos por una realidad económica que a veces no les permite respaldar las responsabilidades que producen de manera continua como flujos de entrada y salida de capital a corto, mediano y largo plazo, lo cual les puede asegurar el éxito y permanencia en el mercado [6]. Es allí en donde cobran importancia las líneas de crédito que ofrecen las entidades bancarias para subsistir y mantener su actividad económica [7]. Por ello, este trabajo tiene como fin mostrar la realidad que viven muchos de los pequeños y medianos empresarios del área metropolitana de la ciudad de Medellín, que desean iniciar con su propio negocio o hacer que este perdure en el tiempo; entre dichas realidades se encuentran aquellas de carácter financiero que disminuyen las posibilidades de contar con capital suficiente que les permita estabilizar, potencializar y crecer en el mercado.…”