World’s Best Banks 2021: Latin America Advertisement May 04, 2021 As the Covid-19 pandemic spread over Latin America without mercy, the local banks stepped up to serve critical roles in helping their nations cope with the two crises: the pandemic and the consequent eco nomic collapse. Banks on the ground first leaped to adopt measures to protect employees and customers from contagion and to upgrade digital resources to meet the increased demand for contactless banking. In evaluating candidates for Global Finance’s 2021 World’s Best Banks in Latin America, a major set of criteria revolve around how these institutions maintained their own financial health. A second set considers how well they provided their individual clients with the means to survive, perhaps even thrive, through new waves of contamination, low vaccination and little GDP recovery.