Changes are needed to get more retail investors and small businesses in the capital markets across the anglophone Caribbean, according to Stacy-Ann Tait, a senior executive at NCB Capital Markets.
“Businesses across the Caribbean need long-term, flexible capital, yet many still hesitate to access capital in the securities market,” said Tait, chief investment officer at NCB Capital Markets and first vice-president of the Jamaica Securities Dealers Association. “They turn to other financing options that may result in a suboptimal capital structure that could constrain long-term growth.”
Speaking at the Jamaica Stock Exchange’s 21st Regional Investments and Capital Markets Conference in January, Tait said many Caribbean businesses still hesitate to raise capital through securities markets despite needing long-term, flexible funding.
The Jamaica Stock Exchange offers a case study for the region, but even the island poses challenges for small businesses seeking to access capital. The exchanges in Barbados and Trinidad, despite those countries’ higher standards of living and GDP per capita, suffer from even thinner trading volumes.
“The structural and regulatory challenges are not fixed. They can be addressed,” Tait said at the conference held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.
Tait identified thin secondary market trading, low retail investor participation outside Jamaica, and inconsistent disclosure practices as key structural barriers. She said the absence of a strong regional credit ratings culture makes it difficult for investors to price risk effectively or exit positions with confidence.
Investor education emerged as a critical priority. Tait noted that in many Caribbean markets, investors still view opportunities through a binary lens of safe versus risky, rather than analysing yield differentials, credit fundamentals, or risk-adjusted returns. When investors lack the tools to evaluate risk properly, they avoid corporate securities entirely or underinvest, she said.
On the regulatory front, Tait called for several specific changes, including reviewing investment limits for pension funds in private companies, increasing concentration limits for corporate securities relative to government bonds, removing restrictions on the number of participants in private offerings, and prudently relaxing foreign currency issuance restrictions.
“There are instances where regulatory rules differ widely even when the underlying risks are similar,” she said, advocating for consistent, risk-based frameworks that better reflect issuer credit characteristics.”
Regional market integration represents another priority. Tait argued that fragmentation across Caribbean jurisdictions slows execution, increases uncertainty, and prevents the region from building transactions at scale. Greater regulatory alignment would unlock significantly more opportunity for issuers, she said.
The conference, themed ‘Capital Markets Fueling Economic Resurgence and Resilience’, brought together regulators, investors, policymakers, and financial sector leaders from across the Caribbean and Latin America.
Tait emphasised that all proposed changes must be rooted in sound risk management practices and ongoing collaboration with regulators and other stakeholders.
