The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition the latest sign of banks' wavering commitment to their Caribbean operations is that Bank of Nova Scotia is mulling its options in Puerto Rico. The Globe's Tim Kiladze, citing a Bloomberg report, says the island's debt was downgraded earlier this year and there are widespread concerns about the economy. Seven years after the financial crisis started, Canadian lenders with sizable Caribbean activities -- Scotiabank, Royal Bank and CIBC -- are all wrestling with what to do about their businesses in the region. When they first went in, the landscape looked incredibly lucrative. Last December, RBC and CIBC kick-started a flurry of bad news by announcing restructuring charges. Since then, there have only been more negative developments, with RBC announcing the sale of its Jamaican unit to a rival lender, including an after-tax loss in the process, and CIBC incurring a $420-million after-tax goodwill writedown on its Caribbean operations. Last week, Scotiabank chief executive officer Brian Porter stressed a commitment to the region. "We've seen a lot of people leave or shrink their operations," Mr. Porter told The Globe. "That's not what we're doing."