Refusal or no refusal. Many in Brazil's banking system didn't even care about the global derivatives markets. There was enough legitimate growth domestically from 2000 onwards that you probably wouldn't look beyond the country's borders except for arbitrage opportunities involving ADRs. Our main interest in global markets was basically limited to finding institutional investors abroad that were interested in purchasing Brazilian securities.
FWIW, I worked as a mid-level analyst at one of Brazil's largest broker dealers from 2007-2009 and have known people involved in Brazil's banking industry going back to the day I was born (my father). I was pretty much the only one in the São Paulo office following details of the crisis from before it started to well after because I was the only one who had grown up in the US and knew what was going on. Until the big crash in 2008 most Brazilians in banking had no idea what was going on with derivatives in the rest of the world. We simply missed that boat due to greater opportunities domestically.
I would describe the general impact of the global financial crisis in Brazil as "Look, it's raining outside. I'm glad I'm here inside where it is toasty and dry."
