No Payment For CLICO Policy Holders: BIFA President

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The President of the Barbados Investors and Policyholders Alliance (BIPA), June Fowler, says policy holders with the cash-strapped CLICO insurance company will not be receiving pension payments this month.

She says this is due to a cash flow problem and inadequate funds being provided by the Barbados government.

“The judicial manager has filed for the company to go into liquidation and this was done back in October or November and because of the finances being made available to him by the government, it has affected the cash flow situation of CLICO and therefore pensioners will not be to be paid their pensions on a monthly basis starting from January,” she told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

Late last year, Fowler told CMC that BIPA is suing CLICO and the Barbados government. She said CLICO’s judicial manager is going to court on January 20 regarding the liquidation of CLICO.

She told CMC that the outcome of the liquidation case will determine if BIPA would continue to pursue legal action.

“We have already filed a case in the court…but that is still ongoing. If the action to say the money has been provided…and we are given guarantees that we are going to get our money back, then there is no need to pursue that.

“If it comes down only to liquidation and no other option, then somebody has to defend the policyholders,” she said, urging pensioners not to lose hope.

CLICO and its sister company, the British American Insurance Company (BAICO) collapsed in 2009 and the Trinidad and Tobago government signed a shareholders’ agreement with then CLICO chairman, Lawrence Duprey following the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between them on January 30, 2009. The MOU gave the government control of 49 per cent of CLICO’s shares.

The then Patrick Manning government injected seven billion Trinidad and Tobago dollars (US$1.01 billion) into CLICO in 2009 to keep the collapsed insurance firm running and protect policy holders.

A few months later, through the passage of legislation in the Parliament, the Kamla Persad Bissessar led coalition People’s Partnership Government, committed a further TT$13 billion (US$2.01 billion) to keep the floundering insurance company afloat.