ECHMB 'withholding dividends owed to Barbados policyholders'

Barbados policy holders of CLICO International Life Insurance Company Limited are frustrated by the St. Kitts-based Eastern Caribbean Home Mortgage Bank (ECHMB), which is said to be withholding dividends due to CLICO International Life Insurance Company Limited.

According to the Nationnews, the cash-strapped CLICO International Life Insurance Company Limited has found itself cut off from about $1 million in funds.

“Barbadian policyholders continue to be frustrated by their inability to recoup money from the failed insurer, St Kitts-based Eastern Caribbean Home Mortgage Bank (ECHMB) has been withholding dividends due to CLICO,” the paper reported.

It said authorities in Bridgetown have been pursuing a “Barbados first” solution. But the Midweek Nation learnt that mortgage bank, which is partly owned by CLICO, is also one of the insurer’s creditors and has initiated its own fix.

Unlikely recovery

Nationnews reported that on 14 March 2007, the Home Mortgage Bank of Trinidad and Tobago sold its 20,000 shares to CLICO Barbados, giving CLICO a 7.44% shareholding.

The Home Mortgage bank subsequently purchased an Executive Flexible Premium Annuity worth $3.7 million.

These “term deposits” matured in October 2009, about eight months after CLICO collapsed. Two years later the Home Mortgage bank was informed that CLICO had been placed under judicial management.

Individual policyholders and investors, not institutional annuity holders have been prioritised in the process.

Nationnews said investigations found that not only has the Home Mortgage bank accepted that it was unlikely to recover the full debt, if any, from CLICO, but it decided not to pay dividends to the Barbados-based company.