Bridgetown.
Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler is anxious over the the lenght of time it is taking to solve the CLICO and British American Insurance Company (BAICO) situation.
He is disappointed that the regional governments expressed disappointment that the regional governments have not been able to agree on a broad settlement framework. Sinckler said the patience policyholders and investors had run justifiably low.
"I think it is incumbent on me to say that it is not as a result of the desire of the regional governments to bring the process to a closure but simply because of the sheer magnitude and the complexity of it", the Minister said.
He stated that the CLICO and BAICO cost and liabilities ran into hundreds of millions of dollars and cut across several jurisdictions all with separate regulators, different judicial managers and widely dispersed assets.
According to Sinckler, Barbados had endorsed the solution which the judicial managers in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean put before governments of the region in July, and believed if given the chance it could work with the appropriate negotiated adjustments.
"We laid this before the regional finance ministers at our meeting in July and I am aware the judicial managers have canvassed at the technical level, the views and opinions of our regional colleagues on this proposal. The response so far, I am advised, has been mixed", Sinckler said.
To this end, Sinckler said he would be proposing that an urgent meeting be held in Barbados next month between all relevant parties including Ministers of Finance, their senior representatives and staff with the aim of forming a broad opinion before the end of the year.
Sinckler was speaking at the Hilton Hotel during the recent launch arrangement between Guardian Life of the Caribbean (GLOC) and City of Bridgetown Financial Services,' which will see the latter selling GLOC life insurance products.
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