http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/1911073933

Trinidad and Tobago selected issues

1. The January 2009 collapse of Trinidad and Tobago-based CL Financial Limited (CLF) and related companies has represented a major financial shock to the Caribbean, which was already reeling from the global crisis. The collapse has had spillover effects in all 15 CARICOM states except for Jamaica and Haiti, with exposures as high as 17 percent of GDP in the Eastern Caribbean, leading to costly government interventions. CLF's insurance subsidiaries, the Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO), the British American Insurance Company (BAICO), and related companies took in funds via deposit-like investment products as well as through traditional insurance and pension products, and channeled these to over-leveraged sister companies and real estate developments which have sharply lost value during the global crisis. The collapse has placed at risk the assets of a wide range of depositors, investors and policyholders, including individuals, corporate and public pension schemes, and financial institutions. The government intervention of CLICO, British American Insurance Trinidad (BAT), and CLICO Investment Bank helped contain contagion, but the cost net of assets could be as high as TT$13.6 billion (10 percent of GDP), including the TT$7.3 billion already injected.

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