Nadaleen Singh

For­eign fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions can es­tab­lish op­er­a­tions in T&T as long as there is com­pli­ance with the rules and reg­u­la­tions un­der the the Fi­nan­cial In­sti­tu­tions Act 2008 and the In­sur­ance Act, the Cen­tral Bank of T&T (CBTT) has said. In an e-mailed re­sponse to ques­tions about the ac­qui­si­tion of Gulf In­sur­ance com­pa­ny by As­suria NV, a large Suri­name-based firm.

The bank's state­ment comes fol­low­ing the mid-No­vem­ber ac­qui­si­tion of Gulf In­sur­ance Ltd by As­suria NV, a Suri­name-based in­sur­ance firm. In re­la­tion to trade, the CBTT said T&T em­braces lib­er­al trade and in­vest­ment poli­cies and, as such, "does not dis­crim­i­nate against for­eign com­pa­nies who wish to do busi­ness" here. The bank said reg­u­la­tion of fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions is a must.

The CBTT?said com­pe­ti­tion is pos­i­tive for the T&T mar­ket. The bank added, "While the na­tion­al­i­ty of the own­er is not unim­por­tant, the more rel­e­vant is­sue is the man­ner in which the in­sti­tu­tion op­er­ates in terms of its gov­er­nance, cor­po­rate and so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ties, the na­ture of the prod­ucts and ser­vices that it of­fers and its abil­i­ty to meet its com­mit­ments."

In April, As­suria opened two in­sur­ance branch­es, As­suria Life (GY) Inc and As­suria Gen­er­al (GY), re­port­ed­ly the first trans-bor­der fi­nan­cial ser­vices ven­ture be­tween Guyana and Suri­name. As­suria NV Suri­name chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer Stephen Smit told Guyana's Gov­ern­ment In­for­ma­tion Agency (GI­NA) that the launch of the Guyanese op­er­a­tions was part of the com­pa­ny's strate­gic plan of be­ing ac­tive out­side Suri­name.

As­suria of­fers life and non-life in­sur­ance, in­clud­ing risk and sav­ings in­sur­ance, mo­tor, fire, ac­ci­dent and health in­sur­ance and is pri­mar­i­ly ac­tive in the field of mort­gage loans.