(Barbados Nation) – Barbados is putting an initial US$5 million (BDS$10 million) into a “Liquidity Support Fund” to help maintain the viability of troubled financial giant CLICO and its subsidiary British American in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU).

This was one of the decisions reached at a top level meeting of regional finance ministers and officials last week in Antigua seeking support for the financial sector in the sub-region.

Guyana’s Stabroek News had quoted a release from the meeting, attended by Prime Minister David Thompson, as saying it “considered mechanisms for cooperation among the member states of Barbados, the ECCU and Trinidad and Tobago and agreed on a strategy that would maintain the viability of British American and CLICO in the ECCU in order to safeguard the interests of policyholders of those institutions”.

The release said the initial contributions of US$80 million towards the fund in relation to British American would be made up of: the government of Trinidad and Tobago through the Caricom Petroleum Fund – US$50 million; the Government of Barbados – US$5 million; ECCU governments – US$10 million; and regional and international organisations – US$15 million. The release said the meeting was also informed of the progress made by the Barbados Government “in respect of the purchase of CLICO Life (Barbados) by the Insurance Corporation of Barbados (ICBL), and ECCU member governments undertook to give full support to this initiative”.

Early last month, Thompson had spoken of the desirability of “extracting” CLICO International Life from the rest of the CLICO Holdings operation, and reported that ICBL had agreed to a confidentiality agreement and would sit with the principals of CLICO.

Noting that ICBL was a reputable company, Thompson said that seeking private sector assistance to ease the financial burden on government was a desirable option at this time. Government is a minority shareholder in ICBL which is majority-owned by Bermuda Fire & Marine (BF&M ).

However, ICBL chairman John Wight said it was too early to call it a “buyout” but his company was willing to help.