Macroeconomic determinants of bank spread in Latin America: a recent analysis with special focus on Brazil

Latin America has one of the highest interest margins in the world; furthermore, credit to private sector and bank spread are negatively correlated. Brazil, in particular, has one the highest bank spreads in the world – it is even so far the highest one among the Latin American economies. Indeed, despite of the decline in interest rates since mid‐1999, bank spread in Brazil continues to be extremely high in international terms, and in recent years has stood at around 40 percentage points. This paper intends to explore the discussion in the recent literature on bank spread about what determines bank spread in Latin America, with special focus on the Brazilian case, seeking in particular but not exclusively to analyze the macroeconomic determinants of bank spread in recent times.