David Beker, Marcos Buscaglia & team Bank of America Merrill Lynch First-place appearances: 0

Total appearances: 10

Team debut: 1993 Bank of America Merrill Lynch rises from third place to mark its best showing on this list to date, claiming the No. 2 position. São Paulo–based David Beker and Marcos Buscaglia, who works out of New York, shepherd this group of five researchers and help lead BofA Merrill to appearances in several other sectors. Beker teams with Claudio Irigoyen in directing the second-place troupe in Local-Markets Strategy; with Felipe Hirai, he guides a squad that merits a runner-up position for its coverage of Brazil. Buscaglia also co-captains, with Frank McGann, the crew that ranks No. 2 for its reporting on Argentina. Working out of offices in Mexico City, New York and São Paulo, the economists earn investor praise for “covering all the bases, with a thorough approach to their country coverage,” in the words of one money manager. They are projecting that nations in the region will deliver divergent performance over the next few years. On the one hand, Mexico’s growth will accelerate, they forecast, as it benefits from stronger U.S. growth and the implementation of structural reforms. At the same time, South American economies will likely continue to slow down in the face of flat commodities prices and tighter external financial conditions. “We think these countries will have to change the engines of growth from consumption to investment and exports,” Buscaglia says. “They need to speed up implementation of infrastructure projects, improve business sentiment and weaken their currencies.” Although Argentina and Venezuela have begun to institute deeper macroeconomic reforms to address growing imbalances, the BofA Merrill team acknowledges, they still have a long way to go.