“The shadow banking system” is a term that is becoming increasingly common in the media and talk shows on finance and economics. It gets its name from the expression “shadow banking”, which is used to refer to entities that are not banks engaging in bank-like activities.

The opening in 2013 of the new BBVA Innovation Center in Bogotáand the activity that the Colombian innovative ecosystem in these three years has been one of the main reasons why it was chosen as a winner by the public in its category (financial services).

US mathematician Robert Wilson, honored with BBVA Foundation’s Frontiers of Knowledge Award for “his pioneering contributions to the analysis of strategic interactions when economic agents have limited and imperfect information about their environment.”

In the past three years the Nobel prize has been awarded to three economists who had previously received the Frontiers of Knowledge Award: Angus Deaton, Jean Tirole and Lars Peter Hansen. In just eight editions, these awards bestowed by the BBVA Foundation have been able to identify the contributions and distinguish the researchers who, months or years later, would achieve the most prestigious award in the world.

In 2015, the global economy has possibly grown at its slowest rate since 2009. Economists expect global GDP to increase at a moderate rate, around 3%. Moreover, this year the progress made by emerging markets will not be enough to offset the adjustment in developed countries. How can regulation contribute to reverse this trend?

Business angels –investment angels– generally invest between 25,000 and 500,000 dollars in new startups, often with the intention of getting them to a scenario where they can attract venture capital funds.

There was a sharp drop in investment in VC-backed companies in late 2015. According to the global quarterly report on VC trends published by KPMG International and CB Insights, investment in the fourth quarter of 2015 stood at 27.2 billion US dollars, with 1,742 deals at the global level –representing a 30% decline in funding. This was also the lowest quarterly level of deals to be registered since the final months of 2013.