Financial Access and Inclusion: A Diagnostic for Barbados

This paper presents an assessment of financial market development, access, and inclusion for Barbados. Based on a review of indicators, survey data, and other metrics, our analysis suggests that recent fiscal and macroeconomic stability concerns, as well as increasingly stringent administrative requirements, have negatively affected financial access and inclusionparticularly for smaller firms. For some firms, high collateral requirements, administrative and documentation-related hurdles, and shortcomings in the institutional and regulatory framework are key impediments to greater financial access. Policy recommendations that flow from this analysis include the importance of durably addressing macroeconomic imbalances, reinforcing the regulatory and institutional frameworks, supporting the availability of information regarding credit and related counterparty risks, and developing a coordinated approach to institutional and policy reform aimed at promoting financial inclusion (e.g., via development of a national financial inclusion strategy).