(Trinidad Express) Some 15,794 people, formerly short-term investment products (STIPs) policyholders of CLICO and British American Insurance, are expected to benefit from participation in Government’s CLICO Invest-ment Fund (CIF), which was officially launched yesterday at the Ministry of Finance and the Economy, Eric Williams Finance Building, Port of Spain.
The $5.1 billion fund (known as NEL 2) is comprised of Republic Bank Ltd shares and Government bonds.
Finance Minister Larry Howai identified Jerry Hospedales as the fund’s chairman, who will work alongside the ministry’s permanent secretary, Maurice Suite, and its senior business analyst, Sharon Molane, to manage the fund.
The CIF is an initiative of the Government to settle, through the issue of units in the fund, amounts due to STIPs policyholders.
Howai signalled this intent in last month’s budget speech as the first of two steps in winding up the Clico issue, which came to a head in January 2009 with a Government bailout of businessman Lawrence Duprey’s insolvent insurance company.
His second step is the creation of a new insurance company in January 2013 to transfer the policies of Clico and British American.
The Government had offered a cash settlement for policyholders of less than $75,000 and an initial payment of $75,999, with 20 zero-coupon bonds with maturities for years 1-10 and 11-20.
The CIF is applicable for the 11-20-year bonds, and policyholders have a December 14, 2012 deadline to redeem the bonds for units in the fund.
