Financial innovations in the Caribbean

This monograph examines the extent and significance of financial innovations in the Caribbean from the period 1985 to 1997. Structured from a largely policy-oriented perspective, the publication first examines the theoretical framework within which financial innovations are spawned, both in developed countries and emerging Caribbean economies. In a path-breaking effort, it then details and catalogues the key institutional instruments and policy innovations that have swept the financial sector of The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the Eastern Caribbean States, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago in the late 1980s and 1990s. The book suggests that such financial innovations in the Caribbean have been driven primarily by enhanced competitive forces, partly unleashed by aggressive programmes of financial reforms and liberalization in an environment of significant uncertainty in the region during that period. It finds that such innovations have also given, and will continue to give, rise to a need for more robust regulatory and supervisory frameworks and for better fine tuning of monetary policy conduct, as it appears that such innovations are already diluting the impact and effectiveness of those activities in Caribbean economies.