Rhoda Rabs emigrated from the Caribbean to Toronto in her twenties to pursue employment opportunities and have a better life. Rhoda has achieved her career goals in Toronto and has been able to help support her extended family financially in the Caribbean through regular remittances over the past 20 years. An island girl at heart, Rhoda would like to retire in the Caribbean within the next 15 years, in this regard she has opened a deferred annuity retirement account with a major Caribbean insurance company and is considering further equity and bond investments in the Caribbean in preparation for her retirement. During a recent family reunion trip, Rhoda shared her investment and retirement plans with her nephew Kerron who is a second year student at the UWI faculty of Social Sciences. Kerrons reply was as follows: Aunty Rhoda I have just completed a course in Financial Institutions & Markets and I can give you three good reasons NOT to invest in the Caribbean: (1) No one knows how interest rates are determined in the Caribbean. (2) Caribbean banks are poorly regulated resulting in frequent financial crises. (3) Caribbean stock markets show zero signs of market efficiency. In other words Aunty Rhoda, our financial systems in the Caribbean are weak.