Jonathan Harrison, for example, CEO of the B Corp Emerge Financial Wellness, wants to create a new asset class called the workplace loan, which he believes is a sustainable way to move millions of under-banked and unbanked workers into the financial mainstream.

FORBES: How Employers Can Run Predatory Lenders Out of Business (and Why They Should)

Yet many still fear the worst: huge costs for Brazil, particularly for its financial sector, and perhaps the end of emerging-market bonds as a viable asset class.

ECONOMIST: Latin American markets