Latin finance ministers meet in Panama under shadow of US bank crisis

Top financial officials from Latin American and Caribbean countries are meeting Saturday in an annual conclave of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), after a week overshadowed by the banking crisis in the United States and Europe.

The IDB’s new president, Ilan Goldfajn, a Brazilian economist, was set to address governors of the 48 member countries, most of them finance ministers, beginning at 11:30 am (1630 GMT). The meeting will then continue behind closed doors.