Trade finance is emerging as a key part of the Latin American banking business model and is bound to be a hot topic on the agenda at this year's Felaban annual meeting being held in Colombia in November. Ahead of this, The Banker speaks to experts about the challenges and opportunities that this growing business line is creating in the Latin American market.

Having revelled in the economic growth that characterised the past few years, Brazil's banks are now struggling to adapt to a less favourable environment. In response to stalling gross domestic product and disposable income growth, many lenders are curbing their lending, leaving gaps, particularly in the small and medium-sized enterprise segment, for other players to step in.

Brazil's private banking business had a wake-up call in 2013 when a stalling economy triggered a slowdown in its growth, increasing competition and forcing banks to look beyond their existing customer base. Now, armed with new strategies and a wider range of products, can Brazil's private banks finally exploit the full potential of this vast and wealthy market?

The tapering of the US Federal reserve's quantitative easing programme and a higher interest rates environment are mopping up liquidity from emerging markets, separating the top-in-class from the current-account-bingers. How does Latin America fare?