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Ciro Matuo,
Pablo Salgado
& team
Itaú BBA
First-place appearances: 1

Total appearances: 2

Team debut: 2012

Rising one rung to celebrate its first appearance in first place is the four-member team at Itaú BBA. Co-captained this year by Ciro Matuo, who also directs the crew on top in Corporate Debt, and newcomer Pablo Salgado, the São Paulo–based strategists assert that the paramount global concern at the moment is how the U.S. Federal Reserve tapers its quantitative easing program and whether the U.S. economy can advance with reduced central bank support. Within Latin America domestic inflation will be a differentiating factor. “Countries with below-target inflation will have more room to face decreasing world liquidity by letting their currencies depreciate,” Salgado explains. “On the other hand, countries that have high inflation will have to limit local currency depreciation, tighten monetary conditions — or both — which in turn will lead to slower growth.” The group is upbeat on Mexico, whose business cycle is closely linked to that of the U.S., but believes that countries dependent on commodities exports, such as Chile and Peru, could face some headwinds. “I enjoy their economic reports and trading insights,” attests one buy-side loyalist. Matuo, 40, followed utilities stocks at Indosuez W.I. Carr Securities until 2000, when he moved to Itaú to become first a telecommunications analyst and then a credit analyst. He earned an MBA in finance from São ­Paulo’s Instituto Brasileiro de Mercado de Capitais. Salgado, 34, joined the firm last year from Rio de Janeiro–based Banco BBM, where he worked in macroeconomics and on the proprietary trading desk. He received a master’s degree in applied mathematics at Rio’s Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada and a Ph.D. in economics at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro. — Carolyn Koo