If technology is the fuel propelling Brazil’s market growth, the country’s banking community is revving the engine.

Brazil’s financial institutions are often credited with developing some of the world’s most advanced online banking technology, partially because they were forced to invest heavily in technology in 1993-94, when hyperinflation was pushing inflation levels up 1 to 2 percent per day, Vicente Nogueira remembers. The need for speed in clearing transactions, and in moving funds to use the float, paved the way for today’s e-banking gains.

These technological advances are a draw for investors looking at Brazil, a large, relatively stable domestic market where foreign trade only represents about 21 percent of GDP, Nogueira says. This huge market is seeing an increase in purchasing power and income from a diverse population that includes a growing middle class.

These factors make Brazil an attractive prospect for the investors Nogueira works with as head of Latin America Financial Institutions Group Investment Banking at Barclays. In this role, he is responsible for financial institutions’ M&A, ECM and DCM in Latin America. Nogueira oversees investment banking for banks, insurance companies, asset managers and specialty finance companies. It’s a career he was drawn to during his time at Kellogg.

“I was already a consultant for financial institutions at Booz Allen Hamilton in São Paulo,” he says. “While I liked consulting, in investment banking you start the transaction and end the transaction. You get more real time in terms of executing and making things happen.”

Nogueira has been making things happen ever since, serving as a FIG banker at Pactual, FIG vice president at Goldman Sachs, director of M&A at Rothschild, and founding partner of both TiqueImoveis Midia Imobiliaria and HabitaSec Securitizadora before coming to Barclays in 2011.

“Barclays is top five in terms of mergers and acquisitions, equity offerings, and debt offerings for financial institutions globally,” he says. “Here in Brazil and in Latin America, we leverage these global relationships and distribution to bring value to our clients.”

As fears about the future of emerging markets dominate the news cycle, investors are starting to differentiate among the individual markets, he says.

“In Brazil you have democracy; you have a lot of stability in terms of contracts and the laws,” he explains. “You have to diversify your portfolio; there are good economies that have been showing growth, including Brazil.”