The Central Bank has appointed three new directors to serve on the board of Clico, effective July 13.
The appointments of the three–Ulric Miller, Delia Jospeh and Raymond Bachoo–follow the June 5 decision by Central Bank Governor Jwala Rambarran to fire retired banker Gerald Yetming and Carolyn John as the chairman and managing director of the insurance company, which collapsed in January 2009.
Central Bank appoints Executive Chairman for CLICO.
Pursuant to its powers under Section 44(D) of the Central Bank Act, Central Bank terminated the appointments of Mr. Gerard Yetming as Chairman of CLICO and Ms. Carolyn John as Managing Director of CLICO on June 5, 2015.
Central Bank appointed Ms Wendy Ho Sing as Executive Chairman of CLICO with immediate effect.
In a statement on June 5, the Central Bank said that it "took this action after Clico failed to follow direct instructions issued by the Bank on March 26 2015 setting out the protocols for all disbursements to policyholders and creditors under the Clico Resolution Plan. These instructions included obtaining approval from the Bank for all payments prior to disbursement."
In that the statement, the Central Bank also announced that it had appointed Wendy Ho Sing, the deputy Inspector of Financial Institutions as the executive director of Clico with immediate effect.
But less than two weeks following the dismissal of Yetming and John, two Clico directors, Jagdeesh Siewrattan and Denyse Mehta, resigned from the board of the company, citing Rambarran's "unfair, unjust and insensitive" dismissals.
The resignations left the Clico board with only two directors Krishna Bodhai and the new executive chairman Ho Sing, which placed the issue of whether they constituted a quorum into doubt. That issue has been resolved with the appointment of the three new directors.
The Central Bank took control of the day-to-day operations of Clico at the end of January 2010, after the then executive chairman of the company, Lawrence Duprey, appealed to the Central Bank for a loan to fill the statutory fund deficit, which was estimated at $5 billion at the time.
Instead of lending money to Duprey, the Government took control of Clico, investing close to $5 billion in the company in the form of preference shares and appointing the insurer's directors.
The Central Bank's appointment of the three directors was in accordance with its powers under section 44 (D) of the Central Bank Act.
But section 44 F (5) makes it clear that "in the performance of its functions and in the exercise of its powers under section 44 D, the Bank shall comply with any general or special directions of the Minister and shall act only after due consultation with the Minister."