Evaluating prospect development of global financial centers in Latin America

The paper assesses the prospects for the development of financial centers in Latin America, a region poorly studied in the global financial field due to the peripheral geographical position and poor integration into world economic relations. The six cities studied - Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Panama, Santiago, Montevideo and Buenos Aires - are analyzed through the prism of the author’s methodology, which includes the most important socio-economic and financial indicators of cities, as well as qualitative spatial and geographical characteristics. It should be noted that the use of indicators such as the value of real estate and the number of people with very large private capital, as well as the introduced significance factors, introduces a certain novelty to represent the dependence of the development of the financial sector on spatial aspects and domestic political stability. Based on the SWOT analysis and expert scoring, strengths and weaknesses are formed, as well as opportunities and threats for each of the agglomerations presented in the study. The study showed that in the region under consideration, Santiago, as well as São Paulo and Panama, which are qualitatively different potential financial centers of an international level, have the greatest potential.