THE BARBADOS INVESTORS AND POLICYHOLDERS ALLIANCE (BIPA) has urged Government to get on with the job of wrapping up a settlement in the CLICO case.
BIPA president June Fowler said yesterday that the CLICO debacle was into its fifth year and it was time the matter was settled.
She was reacting to Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler’s comments Monday during a media briefing indicating that the matter would soon be tied up.
“There is nothing in Mr Sinckler’s statements for us to sit down and analyze,” Fowler told the MIDWEEK NATION. “All of what was said was contained in the CLICO judicial manager’s report and the addendum.
“What we have heard is nothing to get us excited and have us jumping up and down. We would want to see the process moved forward, with approval by the Barbados Cabinet, with the measures sanctioned by the Parliament and action taken to help the policyholders.”
During his first 2014 media briefing on the economy Monday, Sinckler said the Cabinet paper on CLICO had been completed and submitted and they would be approving the formal and final restructuring plan.
He said the judicial manager should be returning to the High Court in a matter of weeks to indicate that Government had thrown its full support behind the restructuring plan which had received tentative approval during the last court appearance.
Sinckler said the plan would see the creation of a new company with the “sanitized” insurance business. Government would create two property trusts – one in the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and one in Barbados in which the assets would be placed.
He said that with the property trusts in place, bonds would be issued against the value of the assets.
Once this had been done, individuals holding Executive Flexible Premium Annuities (EFPAs) would be invited to take a traditional annuity structured appropriately to suit their investment, while EFPA corporate entities would be given interests in the new companies and from there the orderly restructuring of that entity should be well on its way.
The CLICO debacle dates back to January 2009 when parent company C L Financial in Trinidad and Tobago collapsed. It has been a source of frustration for the 25 000 policyholders in Barbados. (TY)
