“The Government of Barbados is providing a bond that is a long-term instrument that would provide cash flows to settle the claims of currency union policyholders over a very long period, over a 15-year period”.
“Clearly, it is not reasonable to ask policyholders who have waited for many years for a settlement to their claims to collect now that settlement over a 15-year period. So the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union and the Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, members of the subcommittee on Insurance, have been working to find ways to monetize the bond to make the cash payments with as much dispatch as possible”.
Gonsalves says the Ministerial subcommittee on Insurance is reviewing various options to arrive at a uniform approach for achieving this objective.
“We hope to give the policyholders a one-off settlement based on this bond, so we’ll monetize it and manage that end of it. And we are hoping that as this works through the court system, we’re looking at on the short end, about six months from now, and the outer limit probably 12 months from now”.
