After experiencing major banking crisis, both Brazil and Chile has developed a strong financial sector. Even though they are the largest economies in South America, recent events occurred, having entirely different outcomes for both countries. This research employs a Data Envelopment Analysis with accounting based indicators to study the efficiency of the financial sector these two countries that lives opposite realities nowadays. The empirical analysis indicates that Brazil’s financial industry, which has been boosted by the foreign investment, is more efficient than the Chilean one. Even though Chilean financial company has been improved by the investment on real estate, mining and other important financial instruments, their equity leverage has worsened their efficiency levels. Moreover, the private medium sized companies which assets are valuated in the range from $2.500.001 to $20.000.000 are proven to be most efficient. It is suggested that both governments apply stricter policies to regulate the efficiency and the growth of the companies within this industry.
