Fortunately Mexico is considered one of Latin America´s economic strongholds, but maybe the question by some of our readers would be, "Being Mexico as it is, how is the rest of Latin America?

If we compare Mexico to most of Latin American countries, we may consider our country is way above most countries in the continent, especially as far as economic issues is concerned.
Countries like Brazil, Chile and maybe Argentina could be the countries that resemble ours the most; however, a characteristic feature of the above-mentioned countries is that they have been unable to sustain continuous economic improvement. There seem to be only temporary periods typical of developing economies. Let one sample suffice: The recent financial crisis in Argentina and Mexico´s own financial crisis more than a decade ago. Nowadays the essential characteristic of the world´s economies is precisely being volatile, when capitals and investments fly from one country to another at a speed that in some cases could destabilize financial systems of the weakest countries and even those of developing countries. Mexico has already lived the effects of capitals volatility during the December ´94 crisis. Maybe the question is: how can governments neutralize flying capitals so that it will not affect their financial systems? According to several economists Mexico and Brazil have stronger financial systems that lead to better equal opportunity conditions when negotiating loans, there is also more transparency and access to liquidity through legal reforms and amendments, allowing for a more feasible access to credit. In other countries the recovery has been slow, such as in Argentina, which has however been solid and systematic, if we consider the deep recession Argentineans lived during the financial crisis a few years ago.

On the other hand, Mexico currently has practices more and more similar to those in North America in the several credit access markets. Nowadays it is more common to see companies going public by issuing bonds and/or, as they are known in financial circles, IPO´s (Initial Public Offer). Mexico has been able to attract investors that purchase and sell subordinate obligations of existing companies, avoiding a dependence on the loans made by financial institutions. Therefore, businessmen, due to the limited access to credit – high and/or expensive - decide to go directly to the capitals market to issue their debt. Mexico has been successful on this issue because since 2003 Mexican Stock Exchange created its own global market so that Mexican investors can buy securities from American and European companies without leaving Mexico or resorting to brokers, increasing the number of market transactions and bringing investment societies to large investors´ table. This has been of great help to Mexican companies listed in the Mexican Stock Exchange that decided to go public, because they have been able to obtain investment funds at costs much more economic and feasible than a debt acquired with banks.

Mexico´s strength before Latin America can be simply measured by the number of public companies. The banks´ role in gathering savings and money has been reduced due to the multiple options existing in capitals market, maybe this could be the beginning of a new financial culture system that could bring great benefits not only to Mexico but also to other economies in Latin America. Hopefully, this will create a new culture in capitals management and we will resemble more to developed markets´ after all there is always something good to learn.