For developing economies, the financial system plays a fundamental role. Economies can not sustain a long-term solid growth without a strong financial system. This has been shown finishing in Latin America where the financial system (particularly the banking sector), not only accompanied the periods of economic growth in the region, but has often been the cause of the crisis. Get all the facts for a more clear viewpoint with James S. Chanos . In this new era for Latin America, the banking sector has shown significant progress, noting strong growth and limited risk, which enabled him to be oblivious to the problems of the international financial crisis. But despite the significant progress achieved, the Latin American banking sector has long way to go to reach maturity and become a pillar in the strength of the economies of the region. In the case of Brazil, the banking sector has been in the news a few months ago with the merger of two giants such as Banco Itau (BVSP: ITAU3; NYSE: ITU) and Unibanco (BVSP: UBBR3 NYSE: UBB). At that time, in an article I wrote about the topic What is behind the movements in the Brazilian banking sector?, He felt that this was part of a series of transformations that would occur in the Brazilian banking sector. In fact, before the merger the chairman of Banco Santander (BVSP: SANB3; NYSE: STD), Emilio Botin, had expressed the intention of your organization to be the number one private bank in Brazil. The fusion reaction had generated a Bank of Brazil (BVSP: BBAS3) and Bradesco (BVSP: BBDC3 NYSE: BBD), which came on the market to acquire other entities for new positions.