CARICOM welcomes progress made on CLICO, BAICO

MINISTERS of Finance and the Central Bank Governors across the Caribbean have been urged to move swiftly to complete their deliberations on national and financial stability reports.

This is one of the issues emerging from the recent CARICOM Intersessional meeting held in Haiti.

The final communiqué said that the Conference received the report on the initiatives taken by the Committee of Central Bank Governors to develop a framework for financial risk assessment in the region, as well as a Regional Crisis Management Plan and welcomed the progress now being made.

The Conference also noted the work being done by the Central Banks and other regulatory bodies on the preparation of national and regional financial stability reports inclusive of a risk contagion matrix to identify potential risks in the regional financial system.

The issue of British American Insurance Company/Colonial Life Insurance Company also came up at the meeting.

According to the Communiqué, the Conference welcomed the progress made in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) and Suriname regarding the resolution of the obligations to policyholders following the financial difficulties of British American Insurance Company and other CLICO subsidiaries.

According to the document, “The Conference noted that formulating a regional solution to address the liabilities of CLICO International Life Insurance was still a work-in-progress and urged the Technical Team overseeing the process to complete its proposals at the earliest opportunity.”

The Conference was, however, mindful of the importance of establishing a reformed supervisory and regulatory framework for financial institutions which operate cross-border in the regional financial space and welcomed the steps being taken by the ECCU in this regard.

On the matter of transportation in the region, the Conference expressed the firm view that transportation be a high priority on the Community’s agenda and mandated that a Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) be convened specifically to consider the key issues.

The recommendations of that meeting are to be brought to Conference at its next meeting in July in Trinidad and Tobago at which a session would be devoted to the issue.