Inside this issue: TWO NEW CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES AND ONE NEW Pg 1 CURRENCY FROM 1010----10101010----10101010 RRREGIONAL NNNEWS SSSUMMARY Pg 1 November 2010 Newsletter : Volume 3, No. 11 AAANNOUNCEMENTS Pg 4 TWO NEW CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES AND ONE NEW CURRENCY FROM 10-10-10 On 10 October 2010 the Netherland Antilles was dissolved. tive will continue under the Centrale Bank van Curacao en The Netherland Antilles was formed by royal decree on 3 Sint Maarten. Since 1971 the official NAf/$ rate of 1.79 has March 1951 consisting of the six territories of Aruba, Bonaire, been firmly supported by the monetary authorities Curacao, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten and Saba. Aruba left The National Office for the Caribbean Netherlands the Netherland Antilles on 1 January 1986 to become a con- The three remaining territories of the Netherland Antilles, stituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Curacao Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, became special municipali- and Sint Maarten have now joined Aruba as constituent ties of the Netherlands and their government is divided be- countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. So the King- tween the individual territories and the central government dom of the Netherlands now consists of four countries, of the Netherlands administered through the latter’s National Aruba, Curacao, the Netherlands and Sint Maarten. Office for the Caribbean Netherlands. This office has respon- Curacao and Sint Maarten became constituent countries of sibility for taxation, policing, immigration, transport infra- the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Suriname was a constituent structure, health, education and social security and provides country within the Kingdom from 1954 but in 1975 it left to these services on behalf of the Government of the Nether- become an independent republic. Curacao and Sint Maarten lands do not have this status. The three islands will continue to use the Netherlands Antil- It is the degree to which the territories share the responsibili- lean guilder but from 1 January 2011 all three will switch to ties of government with the government of the Netherlands the US dollar, rather than the Euro which is used in the met- that defines the country status of the territories. In the case of ropolitan Netherlands or the Caribbean guilder which is be- Curacao and Sint Maarten each will have their own parlia- ing jointly adopted by their former Antilleans, Curacao and ment, government, and prime minister with increased re- Sint Maarten. The decision to introduce the US dollar on the sponsibilities for, and power to enact legislation in matters of, three islands was taken in November 2008 and carries the education, public health, maritime affairs, among other areas. risk of exchange rate fluctuations regarding cash flows be- The Government of the Netherlands will retain responsibility tween the central government and the islands. for defence and foreign policy and has reportedly insisted on On January 1, 2011, all Antillean guilder bank accounts will a number of tough 'good governance' stipulations especially automatically be switched to US dollar accounts. The rate of with respect to financial management and the judiciary. Cu- conversion will be the same as was established back in 1971 racao and St Maarten will share a supreme court and a cen- when the Antillean guilder was pegged 1.79 guilders = 1 dol- tral bank. lar. In order to guard against price hikes on the conversion The Caribbean Guilder (CMg) the Government of the Netherlands legislated that stores and The Antillean guilder will be taken out of circulation and businesses should indicate their prices in both Antillean Curaçao and St. Maarten have formed a monetary union. The guilders and US dollars from 1 September 2009, more than a Centrale Bank Van Curacao en Sint Maarten, previously year before the changeover. the Bank Van De Nederlandse Antillen, will however con- tinue to circulate the Netherlands Antillean guilder that will REIGIONAL NEWS SUMMARY remain the currency of the two countries until 2012 after CL FINANCIAL which time it will be replaced by the Caribbean guilder. The • British American Insurance Company Ltd (Barbados) says Caribbean guilder, CMg (for Curacao, Sint Maarten guilder) it has deliberately limited its policyholders’ withdrawals will be pegged to the US dollar at the same exchange rate as and surrenders from the company (BN 29 Sep) the long established Netherlands Antillean Guilder (1 • Finance Minister Winston Dookeran has told of a proposed USD=1.79 NAg=1.79CMg). The monetary policy of the Bank "special window" for CLICO depositors adversely affected Van De Nederlandse Antillen was focused on ensuring a sta- by genuine cases of hardship. (TE 29 Sep) ble exchange rate of the NA guilder and this primary objec- Page 2 Newsletter : Volume 3, No. 11 REGIONAL NEWS SUMMARY cont’d • There was “evidence of misconduct” on the part of those in payment plan by an American group which is the largest charge of the CL Financial subsidiary Clico Investment Bank liability manager in the world. (TE 21 Oct) (CIB), High Court Judge Justice Peter Tam ruled in a court • Chemical companies in the Clico group are valuable assets action in July, 2004, as he found that the CIB was guilty of based on the increased price of chemicals on the world “apparent breaches of its fiduciary duties” due to its failure market, according to attorney Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, not to intermingle funds in a trust fund it managed. who added that Government did not produce vital infor- (Newsday 30 Sep) mation to policyholders such as the valuation of Clico’s • The payout process for policyholders of the collapsed Clico assets or reports on Clico. (TG 21 Oct) (Guyana) continues while Chartered Accountant Christo- • Members of the CLICO Policyholders Group want Gov- pher Ram questioned the legality of what he said was dis- ernment to pay them an immediate 40 % on their depos- posal of Clico assets (SN 30 Sep) its, with a promise to pay the balance quarterly over a five • Criminal charges arising out of the collapse of insurance - to seven-year period at four to four and a half per cent giant CLICO are nowhere on the horizon, says DPP Roger interest. (TE 25 Oct). The Prime Minister said the govern- Gaspard, as the police have yet to start their investigation ment would consider this plan (TE Oct 26) (TE 30 Sep) THE STANFORD GROUP • Government, through the newly-drafted Central Bank • The Eastern Caribbean Amalgamated Bank (ECAB) will Amendment Bill, is moving to prevent anyone from taking open its doors on 18th October, replacing the operations at legal action against the CLICO bailout plan, without the Allen Stanford’s Bank of Antigua. ECAB said in a state- written consent of the Central Bank. (TE 30 Sep) ment that it had been issued with a banking license to con- • The Central Bank is being threatened with legal action for its duct banking activities in Antigua and Barbuda and had "catastrophic failure of regulatory oversight" which led to also obtained the necessary regulatory approvals “to pur- the collapse of insurance giant CLICO. (TE 1 Oct) chase and assume certain assets and liabilities of Bank of • Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced that the Antigua Ltd”. (Caribbean360 15 Oct) government will launch a Commission of Inquiry into the • Lloyd's of London no longer has to pay legal fees for ac- CL Financial crisis to find out who and what is responsible cused Allen Stanford and two of his former executives for the fiasco which occurred at its subsidiaries Clico, British because they likely engaged in activities excluded from American and Clico Investment Bank The collapse of the coverage under a company insurance policy, a judge has Hindu Credit union will also be investigated (Newsday 2 ruled (Caribseek 15 Oct) Oct) Sir Gavin Lightman, a retired British High Court judge • The Antigua-Barbuda Government is building a defense and a leading Queen's Counsel in insolvency, administra- against a law suit brought by the Stanford Victims Coali- tion law and other related matters is to conduct the enquiry. tion which is seeking to recover financial losses as a result (TE 15 Oct) of the Stanford debacle. (CaribNewsNow 18 Oct) • Government bailout plan for Colonial Life Insurance Com- pany has been put on hold while an inter-ministerial sub- CARIBBEAN committee team led by Food Production Minister Vasant • The new head of the government's planning agency, Dr Bharath would meet with various stakeholders “to take their Gladstone Hutchinson, has proposed a range of short- views on board.” (Newsday 4 Oct) term measures, including offering tradable tax credits to • About 150 Clico policyholders in Guyana have retrieved start-ups, to help jump start the Jamaican economy that their assets in full since the start of the rescue plan outlined has shed more than 86,000 jobs since the onset of the by President Bharrat Jagdeo. (SN 8 Oct) global recession in 2008. (JG 1 Oct) • • CLICO Policyholders Group head, Peter Permell, said that ANSA McAL Barbados, a subsidiary of the ANSA McAL the group had made two "very crucial proposals" to the Group, has stated that its holding company, AMCL Hold- Government, one of which will satisfy the guarantees made ings Ltd, had come to an agreement with Sagicor Life In- to policyholders without causing financial stress on the surance to buy Sagicor’s 2,854,026 shares in ANSA McAL economy. TE 13 Oct) Barbados (TG 1 Oct) • • The General Secretary of the Guyana Agricultural and Gen- Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry is eral Workers Union, Seepaul Narine this morning said that promulgating a Code of Conduct to serve as ethical guide- sugar workers across the country have proceeded on strike lines for the business community.