For bankers familiar with the complexity of Latin loans, such difficulties come as no surprise.

Now, for instance, there is a small secondary market in discounted Latin loans.

The problems with the Latin American loans still exist.

But he is avoiding shares of other banking companies with large Latin American loans.

"Chemical didn't touch its Latin American loans when it reported its earnings today," he said.

Most other money center banks have established reserves for losses on Latin American loans equal to 25 percent of their portfolios.

Significantly, Citicorp is expected to dispose of more than $2 billion in Latin loans during the next three years.

Some banks have also begun to hint at what they think their Latin loans are worth.

"It's more a recovery play after management got battered on Latin American loans and venture capital," he said.

The bank then reduced the value of the Latin American loans to the price it believes they could receive.