This ignorance has given rise to a high degree of suspicion as to motives and as to whether the mandate of these institutions is consistent with the developmental aspirations of our small Caribbean economies.
Despite concerted efforts, the current levels of transparency coupled with the difficulty of consumers in identifying and understanding the fine print from the large volume of information, leads to an information asymmetry between the financial intermediary and the customer. For example, customers are often penalised for minor violations in repayments, although they have limited redressal mechanisms to rectify deficiencies in service by banks.