Policy holders from Grenada and the OECS have renewed hope of recovering some of their investments following the collapse of the Trinidad and Tobago based British American Insurance Company (BAICO) and CLICO in 2009.

The issue received a shot in the arm when the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) agreed last weekend to initiate court action against the government of the twin island republic in the Caribbean Court of Justice seeking to recover millions of dollars still outstanding to policyholders in the islands.

The ECCU, which groups the islands of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, has for several years sought a solution to the removal of millions of dollars from the economies of ECCU Countries.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the flow of funds from the ECCU through BAICO Bahamas and CLICO Barbados prior to the crisis was largely in one direction—funds were taken in locally and the corresponding assets were for the most part held elsewhere, leaving the region with the  “highest exposure” with liabilities of the two companies totalling nearly EC$2.1 billion or 17 percent of ECCU GDP.

Declaring “its not persona” against the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Keioth Rowley, the Chairman of the ECCU, Antigua’s Prime Minister Gaston Brown said the meeting unanimously agreed to take steps against the Government of Trinidad and Tobago after the failure of several attempts to have the outstanding matter resolved.

Chairman of the ECCU sub-committee on insurance, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne, said the decision to take the Keith Rowley administration before the Port of Spain-based CCJ was taken over the weekend.

Brown said while the regional grouping expects some pushback, they have a responsibility to “protect and Promote the interests of the policyholders in the respective island territories.

“So on the basis that all diplomatic efforts have failed then we now have to as a last resort engage legal counsels who will pursue the amount outstanding,” he said after a meeting of the sub-committee on insurance.

He promised that “within the upcoming weeks we will be engaging legal counsel to get a further brief on our legal position and at the same time pursue the issue at the Caribbean Court of Justice in its Original Jurisdiction.

According to the ECCU, Trinidad and Tobago committed to pay US$100 million to member countries, but only US$40 million was disbursed prompting an escalation in the struggle to resolve the issue.

Prime Minister Browne said while a group of British American and CLICO policyholders in the Eastern Caribbean filed a lawsuit at the CCJ against the T&T government last October, the ECCU decision to follow that lead had been in the works for several years.

 “For the last seven years we have been trying to engage Dr. Keith Rowley to have a sit-down and to see how we could resolve the issue to even probably issue some bonds at a low-interest rate…so it doesn’t affect the cash flows of Trinidad and Tobago. I have to tell you all of the efforts to engage Dr Rowley would have failed,” Mr. Browne said.

He explained that several years ago then chairman of the ECCU sub-committee, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves considered taking the matter to court but the committee decided against that course of action in an attempt to engage his Trinidad and Tobago counterpart Dr. Keith Rowley to seek out a solution.

“No one should see this as a hostile position between myself and Prime Minister Rowley. I think we are still reasonably good friends, but we have a difference of opinion among the family and the only way to settle this is to take it to the Caribbean Court of Justice and that on the basis we are successful then Trinidad and Tobago will be forced to pay.”

He said “discriminatory” actions by the government of Trinidad and Tobago which took care of their people while policyholders in the Eastern Caribbean to “hold the bag” led to litigation, since the Trinidad-based companies used money from the economies of the Eastern Caribbean countries to finance their operations and acquire their assets.

Mr. Browne said since taking over the chairmanship of the ECCU sub-committee on insurance last year, there was “significant progress” in recovering some of the investments in CLICO made by residents of the Eastern Caribbean including an agreement with the Government of Barbados to pay US$37 million for the real estate assets of CLICO International in Barbados and for BAICO “we will be getting some US$9.2 million from the government of St Kitts for the Nevis Island Administration Fund.