est. 2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

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Government Suspends Payments to Former CLICO EFPA Policyholders

The decision by the government of Barbados to default on the the New Life Investment Preservation Bond should not have come as a surprise to those with a finger on the pulse of current affairs. Prime Minister Mia Mottley indicated on winning the government that with the country in debt 15 billion dollars with a…

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The decision by the government of Barbados to default on the the New Life Investment Preservation Bond should not have come as a surprise to those with a finger on the pulse of current affairs. Prime Minister Mia Mottley indicated on winning the government that with the country in debt 15 billion dollars with a GDP of 171%- third highest in the world-  a priority of her administration is to restructure/reprofile the debt. The country was given notice that in government’s Phase I and II economic program to be rolled out in the coming weeks government guarantee of all bond issues will be on the table for review.

The decision to suspend payment to former CLICO Executive Flexible Premium Annuity (EFPA) policyholders will be a blow after the matter was ensnared in litigation for almost a decade. Many of the policyholders are retirees – those not dead – and the investment in the EFPA represents savings to support living in the golden years.  The blogmaster will make bold to suggest there was political interference in the process. The symbiotic relationship between the DLP and CLICO brands loom large.

The BU intelligentsia recently engaged in a sidebar conversation – an example of a comment, with Actuary Walter Blackman where the the viability of New Life Investment Company (NLICO)– the parent company of New Life Investment Company- was questioned if there is no premium income. The conclusion is that to maintain payment of pension and other financial commitments this is just another state owned company that will be sucking the very sore nipples.

To discuss insurance related matters the role of the newly minted Board of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) to be chaired by Avinash Persaud must play an important role. Barbados Underground posted in 2017 on a report that dropped off the back of a truck prepared by the IMF which reviewed the robustness of the operations of the Financial Services Commission (FSC)- specifically as it pertains to the supervision of Sagicor.

Middleclass Caught Between the FSC and Sagicor

Posted on by 78 comments

A report prepared by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that reviewed the robustness of the operations of the Financial Services Commission (FSC)- specifically as it pertains to the supervision of Sagicor-  has triggered alarm bells in the local and regional financial market.   Although there is no evidence based on any public reporting Sagicor is not a well run company, the

Read more

 

The blogmaster over the years can measure the efficiency and culture of most organizations by the relevance and ‘vibrancy’ of its website.   A review of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) shows there is an opportunity to improve content management. Have a view of the Management Team Page, the Manager Insurance position is vacant? Surely not! Have a look of Resolution Life Assurance page, the decision to suspend annuity payments is still to be updated to the News & Updates page.

How difficult is it to update a page? Some will suggest the blogmaster is being captious.

In all seriousness.

What the last decade of DLP government has taught us is that a fractious contentious climate is not conducive to moving the country forward. It does not matter if the policy prescriptions of the former government were correct, if the leadership – both political and NGO –  is unable to persuade the majority of the population to get on board, to borrow from the lexicon of the street people, the dog dead. We can continue down the path of the last lost decade or we can dig deep, suppress politically partisan and uneducated position for the good of country.

The country is broke.

#MBGA

 

 

82 responses to “Government Suspends Payments to Former CLICO EFPA Policyholders”

  1. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    The shiite that happens to some Bajans.

    http://www.nationnews.com/IMG/884/84884/front-page.jpg

  2. Bernard Codrington Avatar
    Bernard Codrington

    @ Hants at 12:16 am

    We are going to need several outfalls then?

  3. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ David
    “Reading your comment it seems that Barbados has achieved nothing positive under D or B. In the land where you reside there is the flow of rhetoric between Republicans and Democrats from Jim Crow to now. in the UK there is Labour and Tories. What Barbados is experiencing is the process a young democracy of 50 years old has to grapple. We can build on what we have without rubbishing all and sundry that has gone before.”

    Once more you have rushed into print without reading the comment. I said specifically that both parties have failed to solve the structural problems within the economy. Secondly I stated that we are now confronting four decades (forty years) of mismanagement. Not one decade that you called the “Lost Decade” No where did I state that “nothing positive” was achieved under B or D.
    Less than seventy two hours ago, I stated on BU that there have been at least four positive things, since adult suffrage:
    Independence (DLP)
    Freehold Tenantry Act (BLP)
    Introduction of Free Education (DLP)
    **the return of Free university education (BLP)
    ** I said I partially agreed because I still feel that those who can afford to pay should pay.

    I am not here discussing Republican, Democrat o, labour or Tories. You should notice that I seldom spend my time on those. I am concerned with my our country and like many Barbadians continue to hope that we find a model of sustainable socio-economic development. Not only for our country, Brother David, but the entire Caribbean.
    After sixty three years of collective leadership, both the Barbados Labour Party and the Democratic Labour Party have failed miserably at this task. Unlike you and others , I have never seen the IMF as our saviours.

  4. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ Bernard Codrington,

    I am amazed it has been 24 years since the Government acquired the lady’s land and the “deal” is not finalised.

    If I didn’t know better I would say that “waiting for people to die” is a business plan.

  5. David Avatar
    David

    On what basis are you suggesting that the Barbados economy needed restructuring in the 80s?

  6. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ David
    The topic of restructuring Barbados and or Caribbean economies goes back to the late 60s, when progressive forces were lamenting ,and correctly so, especially during the period immediately following independence, that there was critical need to transform the economies away from the inherited colonialist styled features. I am quite certain that you are aware of the
    works of Eric Williams, Nettleford and others. It is time we stop thinking that all our problems magically arose in the last decade.
    The whole real reason why we are constantly begging for money to sustain ourselves, has its genesis in a failure to seriously produce leaders of the intellect of Llyod Best and others who actually think and not the empty vessels, that are repeating the same thing they have been saying for the last forty years; delivering the same backward thinking budgets and so on.
    Why do you think that even Trinidad, an oil rich economy is floundering ?
    You need to approach other peoples’ positions with some seriousness and stop being so facetious. As much as we malign Castro, we ought to ask ourselves why we are sending people there to have cataracts removed and why our children are going to Cuba to be trained as doctors. You need to ask yourself why is it that with all his apparent negatives, it is now accepted that Burnham had some very progressive ideas. In the Politics of Change Manley said why he/we failed. You and others seem to believe that Chris Sinckler single handedly ruined this economy. It has been ruined by every single minister of finance, to some degree. They are all culpable and until we understand that simple truth , we will meet here in another twenty years and have the same old tired debate.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    The Barbados economy was agrarian driven in the 60s because of our colonial legacy. Through the years it shifted to a combination of agriculture and services with manufacturing featuring in the 70s and 80s. Trying to understand your point with great difficulty.

  8. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Barbadians keep rehasing the past
    Isnt there one person in Barbados that have a positive vision for the future of all barbadians
    The country has now been placed in the hands of a financial institution that serves as a collection agency for international loan institutions
    Can such action be called a vision of hope and prosperity
    Or is this action be categorized as a nation that had lost its way and its people abilty to find answers

  9. whiteHill Avatar
    whiteHill

    Hello David @ BU, I’m here smiling to myself after reading your response to the Gentleman William Skinner’s post at 7:28 pm last night. Yours was at 7:35 the same night. You see, why I’m smiling is because on numerous occasions there were many Barbadians with similar mindset who are keen to responds to me in similar fashion, So many times I was set upon or ganged up on by individuals who for whatever reason think it’s their right to overlooked the relevant facts and other material presented. Before reading your response, I did not sense in any way this gentleman was claiming that nothing was accomplished by either parties during the period mentioned. In my case, I’m usually told that I don’t ever have any thing positive to say about Barbados, at which time i:m invited to ”guh long back then.” What hurts most is that my heart bleeds for Barbados and the shit my people have to go through.

  10. David Avatar
    David

    @whiteHill

    Smiling is good!

  11. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ David
    I tried. Perhaps you would have understood it if it came from Roebuck or George Streets. You might have also understood it if it came from one of the governors of the central bank………..I tried my brother that’s all I can do.

  12. whiteHill Avatar
    whiteHill

    @ BU’s David, have a good Sunday, maybe you can take a ride out the East Coast, even pass through White Hill.

  13. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    What Barbados is experiencing is the process a young democracy of 50 years old has to grapple. We can build on what we have without rubbishing all and sundry that has gone before.(Quote)

    What Barbados is experiencing is unparalleled political and managerial incompetence and stubbornness. Until we face reality there is no way back. What have we achieved in 50 years? We have people now in their early middle age who were not born when Barbados became independent – a year after Singapore, and starting from a more advanced base. In 1965 Singapore was a swamp, used by British troops to train in guerrilla warfare. Just ask any of the Bajan soldiers who served in the British army in the 1960s. Rumshop culture can only take you so far. Barbados is a failed state.

  14. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Ministers cannot recruit people direct to the conventional civil service. However they can recruit special advisers, called Spads, see below:

    Special Advisers
    Special Advisers are, as their name suggests, a special type of civil servant. This part of this website provides introductory information (below), as well as a little history, and gives advice (below) on how regular civil servants should best work with Special Advisers. More detailed information, and useful advice for Special Advisers themselves, may be found on the UCL Constitution Unit website as well as here. Some statistics may be found here.
    There are a number of reasons why Ministers find it helpful to have the modern form of Special Advisers (aka SpAds or Spads) within No.10 and within Ministerial Departments.
    The first and obvious reason is that it gives Ministers immediate and simultaneous access to a friendly and familiar face offering political advice to be considered alongside that from mainstream civil servants. It is not surprising that many Ministers prefer to have near them devils that they know rather than devils they don’t know – especially at the beginning of their time in government. They have chosen them (rather than had them imposed upon them) unlike their civil servants and often their departmental junior Ministers – and they are likely to have compatible personalities.
    The second, equally obvious, reason is that SpAds can give strong political advice, help draft political speeches etc., thus providing an extra pair of hands when there is ever-increasing pressure on Ministerial time.
    (Note, however, that mainstream officials’ advice should take politics into account, including the likely strength and nature of any Parliamentary opposition, constituency factors, and so on. But SpAds’ advice may be stronger and/or better informed.)
    And the third, also very strong, reason is that Special Advisers can often provide a different perspective – a counterpoint, if you will – to the advice emanating from the official machine. Officials’ recommendations may require Ministers to take unacceptable political risks – or indeed operational and financial risk. (The NAO’s view is not that civil servants are risk averse. It is that civil servants too often do not understand the risks that are associated with what they want to do.) Or officials’ advice may be too cautious and/or reflect a certain inertia carried over from the policies of a different Minister – including a different Minister within the same party. As one SpAd put it:
    The last thing any Secretary of State needs is another Civil Servant. They’ve got enough of them and that’s not really meant as a criticism, it is just you inevitably inherit a policy inertia … You were eyes and ears for policy going awry and also the eyes and ears for policy initiatives that you’ve inherited perfectly innocently that of course are now contrary to government policy or government intent. We were a third party, a devil’s advocate.
    All Ministerial departments therefore have one or more Special Advisers (often abbreviated to “SpAds” or “Spads”) who are personal appointees of the Secretary of State, but employed as temporary civil servants.

    They are exempt from mainstream civil servants’ obligation of political impartiality,
    they can assist Ministers on any aspect of departmental business,
    they can convey to officials Ministers’ views, instructions and priorities,
    they can ask officials to prepare and provide information and data, including internal analyses and papers, and
    they are allowed to engage in limited political activities outside the office, such as telephone canvassing.

    But …
    they cannot engage in public canvassing such as for Parliamentary candidates in constituencies,
    they cannot line manage regular civil servants,
    nor may officials’ advice be transmitted to Ministers via Special Advisers.
    And SpAds may not formally represent the Government or their Minister, nor commit the Government in any way.

  15. charles skeete Avatar
    charles skeete

    “Intellectually dishonest party apologists want the world to believe that corruption and bad management started in 2008 and will now suddenly stop in 2018. Keep dreaming-light up your noisy firecrackers and hold your little starlights in your hands”

    Not true Mr Skinner; it was Mr Thompson and his men of integrity who wanted us to belivee it started under Owen Arthur with Mr Thompson proudly brandishing the cheque which Mr Arthur purportedly received from Clico and which all but demolished the chances of the BLP in the 2007. election.
    but Karma turned the tables around to expose Mr Thompson’s involvement with CLICO; Mr Carrington’s withholding of client’s money and now the unkindest revelation of all party wise the Don in name an nature.

  16. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ charles Skeete

    You should have quoted the context. I wrote:

    ” Everytime a Dee says something negative about a Bee the Bee can strike back and vice versa. Intellectually dishonest party apologists want the world to believe that corruption and bad management started in 2008 and will now suddenly stop in 2018. Keep dreaming-light up your noisy firecrackers and hold your little starlights in your hands………”

    You have confirmed my position- Bees and Dees have been going back and forth since Barrow broke away from Grantley Adams. One day a man running the DLP to be come Prime Minister ; next day he in the papers with a portrait and is called a BLP stalwart (Mascoll) One day a man can insult the a woman and call her and her other women 1000 lbs of blabber. The next day he join she party and sits at her right hand. (Symmonds) One day the bees can criticise the Dees for hiring Avish Persaud ; the next day the Dees can criticise the Bees for hiring the same man. You know the truth. Arthur cheques; Cammie dope in the diplomatic bag. What benefits do they really bring to our country. Slashing women car tyres and pulling guns on each other and eating thousands of dollars in food every Tuesday. Same old same old Charles and you know it better than most. See ya, buddy.

  17. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    @William Skinner August 19, 2018 12:56 AM

    Indeed, nobody should claim the IMF is some economic Jesus. It is the lender of last resort and executor of international capitalism.

    Barbadians can only help themselves. The IMF cannot and will not force Barbados to implement prudent governance. That is the reason why so many IMF programmes fail, since govs are often unwilling to give up the privileges of the ruling class, eg introducing transparency policy and implementing good governance, compliance and the rule of law.

  18. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @William Skinner August 19, 2018 1:43 PM “insult the a woman and call her and her other women 1000 lbs of blabber.”

    Blubber=fat

    Not blabber=lotta long talk.

    And admittedly some of the political partisans are kinda chunky, well on their way to CNCD’s=chronic non-communicable diseases.

    The IMF should cut out ALL parliamentary meals.

    make the fellas and gals bring cucumber sandwiches (whole wheat bread, no butter, and thin-thin slices of cucumber) and skim milk from home. Save the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, and maybe protect the health and prolong the lives of some of our honourable members.

  19. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Simple Simon

    Thanks for the correction. Just for a laugh if he had said Blabber, he would have been kinder. LOL

  20. Walter Blackman Avatar
    Walter Blackman

    Enuff August 18, 2018 5:46 PM

    “Someone please tell Mariposa that I was (and remain) serious when I declared that I was no longer responding to fools.”

    Enuff,
    If all of us adopted the policy of “no longer responding to fools’, you would exist in a perpetual state of solitude, ignorance, and bewilderment on BU.
    That’s not a desirable outcome, is it?

  21. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Enuff cannot respond honestly to the article
    Reason she now looks like a fool .”fools” after ten years of adopting a hardline stance by present govt seizing nuff political rhetoric and attacks on past govt by Mia with a concern that even at taxpayers expense the policy holders should be paid
    Now only retort Enuff uses is one having Enuff digging inside an empty soul finding herself not being able to defend the poor policyholders
    Hence Enuff pitful attack
    Poor soul

  22. Walter Blackman Avatar
    Walter Blackman

    sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) August 18, 2018 5:08 PM

    “RES LIFE is a resurrected CLICO? Why did clico died? As far as i gathered it was sheer regulatory incompetence by govt regulator(s) under both the BLP and DLP administrations that allowed this to occur her policy holders.”

    sirfuzzy,
    Any law-abiding insurance company in the world, which is interested in providing value for its shareholders (or its policyholders if a mutual company), and meeting its obligations to investors and policyholders, has to pay close attention to the support and control mechanisms which have been established worldwide.
    In the Barbadian context, these mechanisms amount to::
    The company’s actuary
    The company’s management
    Auditors
    Regulators
    The Minister of Finance
    The Prime Minister

    The insurance company has control over 3 elements of the support mechanism. Government has 3.

    The process is supposed to start with the company’s actuary. Who was the actuary at CLICO Barbados?
    Collaboration and discussions often have to take place among the actuary, and members of the competent, educated, and professionally qualified management team of the insurance company. Who were the members of the management team? We heard that CLICO Barbados had a qualified accountant in Terrence Thornhill. That’s it. Not good enough.

    From this simple analysis so far, we can detect and understand the “great divide” between the unknown company actuary, and the relatively weak, poorly trained and uneducated company management team led by an uneducated company President.

    The incompetent management team presumably chose the auditors.

    Given the obvious structural weakness and management deficiencies within CLICO, the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Barbados ought to have ensured that competent regulators were put in place to make sure that the hard-earned premiums paid by policyholders and investments made by investors, were used for legitimate business purposes, and not to enrich a group of ruthless thieves.

    Does the evidence suggest that any Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Barbados exhibited such concern about CLICO being raided and the policyholders being robbed?
    Did not Owen Arthur appoint Carlos Belgrave as Supervisor of Insurance? What was Mr. Belgrave’s qualification and experience in insurance?
    Did not PM Owen Arthur, rather than making sure that no policyholder’s money left CLICO and its subsidiaries without a valid business reason, cash a cheque personally issued to him from a CLICO subsidiary? As PM, what services could Owen Arthur have possibly provided to CLICO and its subsidiaries to account for him receiving $75,000? Where is the invoice? Where are the taxes paid? Where is the VAT?

    Did not David Thompson expose the $75,000 “Owen Arthur/CLICO subsidiary scandal”, and after becoming PM and Minister of Finance, proceed immediately to illegally extract $3.3 million from CLICO? Didn’t PM Thompson refuse to charge VAT on a phony invoice for work that was not done, proceed to launder the money, and then pass it through to Parris’ account? Did Thompson & Associates pay any corporation tax on that $3.3 million?

    Did not PM David Thompson travel up and down on CLICO’s private jet, with his travels paid for by CLICO policyholders’ premiums? Government business cannot be conducted in this way, so the value of the jet trips Mr.Thompson enjoyed must be viewed as “income” to Mr. Thompson and taxed accordingly.

    Given the many financial laws that were broken, and given the evidence that came out of the Judicial Manager’s report and that was published on BU, do you mean to tell me that not one “complainant” can be found in Barbados to contact the Commissioner of Police to start criminal proceedings?

    Why has BRA remained totally transfixed and paralyzed when there are clear breaches of the laws and regulations which that department is responsible for enforcing?

    Why did the only two members of the “regulatory and enforcement” team who made any attempts to prosecute this nasty, stinking, crooked CLICO raid get removed from their desks and paid a salary for years for not driving a stroke? Can you imagine that our national GDP is made up of these salaries being paid for no work being produced? And then some jackass is going to get up and start spouting worthless concepts like debt to GDP ratio, fiscal deficit being some % of GDP. etc. Rubbish..

    CLICO died because the collective greed of the “political” and “company” thieves was much greater than the hundreds of millions of policyholders’ premiums available. When people in Barbados have latched on to a “thiefing” scheme, they would kill their own mother if she got in their way.

    RES Life was conceived by a group of small-minded “hoodwinkers”, dressed up in political robes, as the solution to a raid and robbery.problem. These “hoodwinkers” never cared one iota about the well-being of CLICO policyholders. They still don’t.

    From 1987, up to May 24, 2018, the persons who had to make the major political decisions on CLICO also had to make major decisions about Barbados.
    CLICO is dead. What state can a reasonable person expect Barbados to be in, at this point in time?

    You asked: “RES LIFE is a resurrected CLICO?”
    I am now going to ask: ” Is it just possible that RES LIFE is an insurance hospice?”

  23. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Nearly all these points are regulatory failures. Should the scheme actuary not be named in the annual report? Is there any compulsion for the scheme actuary to be on the executive board of the insurance company? In terms of the investment vehicles, all these should have received regulatory clearance before they went on sale.
    Also the firm’s hiring and firing of influential people, ie those who had an influence on policy, should have been approved by the regulator; so should its investment policies.
    As I have said before on this very topic, the business models of banks and insurance companies are diametrically opposite. The business models of banks is to borrow short and lend long; that of insurance companies is long-term liabilities. So, it is important that the regulator monitors insurance companies investment policy with a very close eye.
    But this was not all; before the Clico meltdown we had the global financial crisis and the collapse of AIG. In his evidence to the New York authorities, the former CEO of AIG, Greenberg, said in sworn evidence that they7 had opened a subsidiary in Barbados for the explicit purpose of avoiding US tax authorities. Instead of launching an investigation in to the matter, the Barbados authorities issued a statement saying Barbados had one of the best regulatory systems in the world. It was blatant stupidity.
    The of course we had the global crisis from which – even ten years later – neither the local or regional authorities seem not to have learned a single lesson.
    The Clico debacle has been dealt with differently by the Trinidadians, St Lucians, Guyanese and Bahamians and Barbadians. Of all, the Barbadians were the most incompetent. Even now, CARICOM//Csme have failed to put in place a cross-border regulatory system.
    The thinking behind the creation of Res Life was right and proper, the creation of a ‘good’ Clico and a ‘bad’ Clico;one to continue the business as a going concern and the other to liquidate the old liabilities. But as I understand it, Res Life is headed by a former banker (see above) and there does not seem to be a moral purpose behind its formation.
    Annuitants buy annuities because they want to provide for their retirement years and therefore are likely to be older people. To not treat such annuitants are urgent is unethical. It has been reported that people have died while awaiting the resolution of their claims.
    Then we had the nonsense of a so-called judicial review without any real judicial powers (the key one of which is the right to subpoena witnesses and evidence).
    If Res Life is a resurrected Clico, then history will simply repeat itself. We now wait to see if the new BLP government will implement any effective new regulatory policies not only to resolve the scandal of Clico, but to prevent any similar chaos happening again.

  24. David Avatar
    David

    Please enlighten the blog how the creation of ResLife is a good idea given the damage to the CLICO brand and knowing that insurance is a confidence sensitive business? Then add the nuance of a small market where CLICO has operated with the political and other considerations. Look forward to Walter’s input here. The blogmaster admits ignorance.

  25. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Concentrate: you form two companies, a good company and a bad one. The good one will run the remaining business as a going concern; the bad one will then manage the liquidation of the company, including paying out old liabilities. It is not radical, it is how most developed economies got through the 2008 crisis.
    In any case, whether there is a law in place or not, government is seen as the lender of last resort. In other words, people buy insurance from these companies because implicit in their doing business is state approval.
    The so-called damage brand is in the mind: every leading bank in the developed world has been caught up with heavy fines for money laundering or some other regulatory infringement – Barclays and Libor rigging, RBS and its global restructuring group, HSBC and the Mexican drug dealers, etc. It is the tidying up that is important. About the so-called small market; modern capitalism is not affected by borders. Look at the Icelandic companies, or those in Singapore.
    What about the Clico legacy investments? What about their poor investments? The problem is poor regulation and the Barbadianisation of jobs for which the incumbents are not sufficiently qualified or experienced.
    Question: Has the university offered any new courses on financial regulation since 2008? They have however offered new courses in Mandarin. We must get our priorities right.

  26. Walter Blackman Avatar
    Walter Blackman

    Hal Austin August 20, 2018 11:55 AM

    “Nearly all these points are regulatory failures.”

    Hal,
    I defined the overall regulatory process as STARTING from the actuary and ENDING at the PM. So in essence, your observation is fair.

    However, what BU readers should detect from my defined regulatory process is that, the way the CLICO raid was designed and packaged, the process had to be reversed. Given the evidence revealed by the published cheque, instead of being the last person to defend the interests of CLICO policyholders, the PM became the first person to breach the process.

    Once the process was breached, the Minister of Finance was compromised (same person as PM), the regulators operate under the control of the Minister of Finance so no independent or contrary action on their part was allowed, the Auditors ought to have known about the cheques and ought to have followed the money trail (Did they? If they did, what happened? If they did not, why not?), the management of CLICO was wrapped up in the raid and robbery with the politicians from the start, and the actuary?………

    You were rather sharp when you said that NEARLY ALL of these points are regulatory failures.
    Other contributing factors to the CLICO raid point to the darkest side of human nature – greed, corruption, collusion with evil intent, the belief by some “criminals” that they are above the laws of Barbados, and the betrayal of the public’s trust by individuals who turned out to be unfit to hold public office.

  27. whiteHill Avatar
    whiteHill

    Hi Hal, is Mandarin a fruit like the orange, the citrus family? lol

  28. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Walter,

    You make the point that the insurance regulator reports to the minister of finance. This is one of the structural problems. The regulator should be independent reporting annually to parliament. The minister’s responsibility should begin and end at hiring and firing.
    The Clico debacle has become party political, with nonsense about $3m cheques, which should have been sorted out by good auditing and by the judicial review. As you are aware, globally auditors are in serious trouble. Again, the executive team at Clico should have been approved by the regulator, this seems not to have been the case, a regulatory failure.
    You talk about human frailties, greed etc, good regulation provides the checks and balances to individualised weaknesses. Part of it is also cultural; we live in a society that tolerates such unethical behaviour, especially when it comes to friends and relatives. Just look at the make-up of our Senate and you see signs of what someone on BU once called heritage.
    @Walter, we still have not had a proper account of the legacy business at Clico (nor, for that matter, the Mutual), which is treated as something in the past.
    Until we accept that having the offices and officers, the institutions and laws, do not in themselves mean that we are well governed things will not improve. Outcomes are important. We have a limited talent pool; if we do not have the right people locally, then import them on limited contracts.
    I divert for a minute, but back in the 1970s I was offered a job by the government of Bermuda on a three-year contract. I accepted on condition that the position be made permanent. They refused; the rest is history. There are experienced people in Canada, the UK, Australia, etc who would work on limited contracts.
    Our financial sector is badly regulated and all the problems we experienced go right back to poor regulation. Political interference only clouds matters.

  29. watchman Avatar
    watchman

    @Walter Blackman

    Now, this is the real Walter Blackman posting on August 20, 2018. 11:32 AM.

  30. David Avatar
    David

    All directors appointed to the boards of insurance companies have to be disclosed for vetting by rhe regulator.

  31. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    What does vetting mean? I am talking about being qualified and experienced to do the specific job. A retired banker running an insurance company is not ‘vetting’.

  32. David Avatar
    David

    https://www.facebook.com/bipabarbados/photos/a.289301421142265/2138386479567074/?type=3

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