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* S&P Global Ratings has revised its outlook on Mexico's long-term ratings to stable from negative, to reflect "diminishing risk" that the government's direct debt burden could materially worsen the agency's assessment over the next two years. The rating agency also raised the long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings of Honduras to BB- from B+, reflecting the country's improved fiscal flexibility as a result of its "disciplined" public finance policies.
* Peru's government has sent a bill to Congress seeking to bolster the country's capital markets by reforming existing legislation governing the securities trade, SEMANAeconómica reported. The proposed changes would affect the operation of mutual and investment funds, stock brokerages and trading platforms.
MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA
* Fitch Ratings assigned Panama's Grupo Mundial Tenedora SA national long-and short-term issuer ratings of A-(pan) and F1(pan), respectively. The ratings take into account the financial profile of the group's operating subsidiary, Banco Panameño de la Vivienda SA.
* Staff at Banco de México have been banned from accepting any gifts or using privileged information to make investment decisions, such as buying or selling shares, El Universal reported. The tougher restrictions coincide with the launch of the country's National Anti-Corruption System.
* Financial fraudsters in Mexico are shifting from traditional methods to target boom technologies such as e-commerce, mobile payment systems and virtual currencies, El Economista reported, citing the country's financial consumers' defense commission. In the first quarter of 2017, user complaints to banks about possible fraud rose 10% year on year to 1.5 million.
* Mexican credit unions saw their profits drop 7.9% in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the same period a year earlier due to increased spending on...