Joining the efforts of the Shadow FinancialRegulatory Committees from the U.S., Europe, and Japan, a group ofLatin American economists with strong expertise in the field ofbanking, finance, and regulation of financial services and markets setup the Latin American Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee (LASFRC).The LASFRC was formed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in July 2000.Chairperson of the committee is Liliana Rojas-Suarez.

Current Members:

• Pedro Carvalho de Mello (Brazil), former Commissioner of Comissãode Valores Mobiliários; currently, Professor at ESALQ, Universidade deSão Paulo.
• Claudio Contador (Brazil), former Professor at Universidade Federalde Rio de Janeiro; currently, Managing Director of the NationalInsurance Foundation, Rio de Janeiro.
• Roque Fernandez (Argentina), former Minister of Finance ofArgentina; currently, Professor at Universidad del CEMA, Buenos Aires.
• Gustavo Franco (Brazil), former President Central Bank of Brazil;currently, Professor at Pontificia Universidade Católica de Rio deJaneiro.
• Pablo Guidotti (Argentina), former Vice-Minister of Finance ofArgentina; currently, Director of the School of Government andProfessor at Universidad Torcuato di Tella, Buenos Aires.
• Ricardo Hausmann (Venezuela), former Chief Economist, LatinAmerica, Inter-American Development Bank; currently Professor atHarvard University, Cambridge.
• Ruth de Krivoy (Venezuela), former President Central Bank of Venezuela; currently, President of Sintesis Financiera, Caracas.
• Liliana Rojas-Suarez (Peru), former Chief Economist, Latin America,Deutsche Bank; currently, Visiting Fellow at the Institute forInternational Economics, Washington DC.
• Ernesto Talvi (Uruguay), former Chief Economist, Central Bank ofUruguay; currently, Executive Director of the Center for Economic andSocial Policy Research, Montevideo.
• Roberto Zahler (Chile), former President Central Bank of Chile; currently, President of Zahler and Co., Santiago.

In addition to the Latin American participants, the Committee also includes two additional, invited members:

• Harald Benink (The Netherlands), Chairman of the European ShadowFinancial Regulatory Committee and Professor at Erasmus UniversityRotterdam.
• Charles W. Calomiris (USA), Member of the U.S. Shadow FinancialRegulatory Committee and Professor at Columbia University, New York.

Independence of the Committee

The Latin-American Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee meetsthree times every year (including a joint annual meeting with itscolleague Shadow Committees in Europe, Japan, and the U.S.). The"shadow" function of the LASFRC is related to the Committee’s purposeof following and analyzing critically the existing and evolvingregulatory framework for financial institutions and markets. Moreover,at the end of each meeting the LASFRC will organize an internationalpress conference during which a public statement will be issued ontopics discussed during its meeting. The Committee is fully independentof the providers, regulators and supervisors of financial services andmarkets.

Analytical Mission

The analysis of the regulatory framework will be based onexisting and proposed national and international regulations,recommendations by international forums such as the Basel Committee,the Financial Stability Forum and the Group of Thirty, and on relevantacademic research in this field. Typically, the Committee tries totranslate concepts drawn from academic literature into concrete policyrecommendations with respect to certain subject areas. Topics to becovered by the LASFRC during the coming years could include: the impactof proposals to reform the architecture of the international financialsystem on the functioning of Latin-American financial institutions;guidelines for the design of financial services regulation; the prosand cons of universal banking and bancassurance; the development ofcapital markets in Latin America; banks and derivatives; electronicpayment services by non-banks; supervision of financial conglomeratesand non-banks; capital requirements (including the new debate on therole of external ratings, internal ratings and subordinated debt),liquidity management strategies, and state ownership and/or support offinancial institutions.

First Meeting

The first official meeting (including an international pressconference) took place on December 16-18, 2000 in São Paulo, Brazil. Astatement was issued entitled "Towards Financial Stability in LatinAmerica."

The Latin-American Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee gratefullyacknowledges financial support by CAF for funding its first officialmeeting in São Paulo. The Committee is fully independent and autonomousin drafting its statements.