The Latin quarter

As the economic recovery in Latin America gathers pace, so the region’s structured products market is evolving. But investors intending to tap into the growing domestic markets need to be cautious. Sarfraz Thind reports

Latin American structured product business has seen a huge shift in the past couple of years from the cross-border asset-backed securitisation (ABS) deals that dominated the region for a decade after the market’s inception in the early 1990s, to a domestic issuance market led by Mexico. The decline in cross-border activity – deals structured in one country but issued another country and currency – has meant fewer opportunities for foreign investors on the lookout for yield, but it