Guyanese policy holders receiving payments – BoG Governor

Bank of Guyana (BoG) Governor, Dr Gobind Ganga, has confirmed that Guyanese policy holders, who had

BoG Governor, Dr Gobind Ganga
BoG Governor,
Dr Gobind Ganga

invested their monies in the now defunct Colonial Life Insurance Company Limited (CLICO), some seven years ago, have begun receiving their monies.
While he could not say off-hand the number of persons who had plugged their life savings into the Insurance Company, Dr Ganga said the process of payout has been ongoing for some time now. He said the monies garnered from CLICO’s liquidated assets and those of its affiliated companies were being used for the payouts.
He said however, that all policy holders may not be paid anytime soon as they are being paid based on their rankings, but assured that every effort is being made to make payments back to policy holders.
But while efforts are being made here to repay policy holders, Guyana is yet to see its day in court in The Bahamas.
Before the massive financial collapse in 2008, CLICO Guyana had transferred some US$36 million to CLICO Bahamas. However, while the investments were said to be “liquid on paper”, investigations, revealed that the sum had been tied up in several investments, including real estate which CLICO Bahamas had in Florida through subsidiaries.
When CLICO Bahamas was ordered liquidity on February 24, 2009, the local company was subsequently placed under judicial management. Guyana was then forced to retain lawyers to help recover its money, some 53 per cent of the assets of CLICO Guyana. That matter was filed in The Bahamas court after the CLICO Bahamas’ liquidator “rejected” Guyana’s claims.
Recently Dr Ganga had told Guyana Times that given the current financial status of CLICO, there was a possibility that Guyanese policyholders may not get back their life savings which were transferred to the company’s Bahamian office.
He said in terms of beneficiaries, Guyana was “way down the ladder” nestled at category ‘D’. This being the case, it did not seem like Guyana would anytime soon be able to recover the monies invested since, like many other countries, it was still awaiting its day in court.
According to Dr Ganga, it is obvious that Guyana’s case has been “put for last”, on the list of cases filed by other Caribbean countries against the group. Suriname is one such country, claiming US$15.5 million from CLICO Bahamas. Guyana’s case is being represented by an esteemed lawyer, John Wilson of McKinney Bancroft & Hughes.
CL Financial, CLICO’s parent company, collapsed in January 2009, following the global financial crisis in 2008. The global recession exposed the company’s inability to meet its commitments to pay maturing investments at CLICO and CLICO Investment Bank (CIB). In 2010, the CLICO Bahamas liquidator, Craig A “Tony” Gomez, had related that his “preliminary view of the documentation suggests that policies were never issued by CLICO Bahamas. In addition, premiums received from Guyana and Suriname were never paid to CLICO Bahamas”.
In his third report to the Bahamian Supreme Court on the life and health insurer’s liquidation, Gomez, of the Baker Tilly Gomez Chartered Accountants firm, said the US$34 million and US$15.5 million claims submitted by CLICO Guyana and CLICO Suriname had not been approved.
Guyana had appealed the matter which is still pending; to date, Guyana is yet to receive any of the money invested by CLICO Guyana.