Lawmakers carve out CLICO payout deal

Depositors are desperate to get back their invest-ments in insurance giant CLICO through the govern-ment's shares in Republic Bank, Finance Minister Winston Dookeran said as lawmakers approved the measure by 29 votes to nine Wednesday night.

In what Dookeran called an "enhanced payoff regime" for CLICO, the government is to issue electronic bonds to retire the remaining indebtedness of CLICO policyholders. The deal will cost the government TT$500 million over 10 years, he said.

He said the deal would benefit 235,000 policyholders, 16,000 depositors, 2,000 firms and most of all, the people of Trinidad and Tobago, adding that he expected the country to breathe a sigh of relief that the CLICO debacle would no longer dominate the financial sector.

"What we have devised cannot be surpassed anywhere else in the world," he said.