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* Grupo Financiero Scotiabank Inverlat SA de CV will invest some 3.5 billion Mexican pesos in 2017 for the modernization of its technology platform, El Financiero reported. Mexico is among five countries where parent Bank of Nova Scotia plans to modernize its technology platforms. The other countries are Canada, Colombia, Peru and Chile.
* S&P Global Ratings downgraded its long-term foreign and local currency sovereign ratings on Barbados to CCC+ from B-, with a negative outlook, while lowering the country's short-term ratings to C from B. The rating agency said the weaker capacity of Barbados to meet its debt servicing obligations reflects lingering high fiscal deficits, limited access to private-sector funding in the local market and a decline in external funding.
MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA
* Mexican insurance firms ended 2016 with an accumulated profit totaling 38.68 billion Mexican pesos, up 82% from 21.21 billion pesos earned in 2015, according to data from insurance regulator CNSF. The improvement came as written premiums grew to 447.64 billion pesos, mostly consisting of direct premiums.
* The Mexican government said it has opened legal support centers at its 50 consulates in the U.S. to help its citizens amid concerns of a clampdown on illegal immigrants, Reuters reported. "We are not promoting illegality," Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said, urging the U.S. to create a route to legality for undocumented migrants.
* Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said his government "is willing to modernize NAFTA" and negotiate revisions to labor and environmental standards in the trade pact, but it will not agree to any tariffs on Mexican goods, Reuters reported.
* Troubled Costa Rican lender Banco Crédito Agrícola de Cartago must re-evaluate its operations as it will fail to recover its financial health if it continues to focus on commercial lending, El Financiero reported, citing Mariano Segura, head of the country's Presidential Economic Council. The lender, which recently signed a bailout agreement with...