A new company is being created to succeed collapsed financial giant Colonial Life Insurance Company (Clico). The company, to be called Atrius, will be formed through a merger of British-American Insurance Company and Clico, sources told the T&T Guardian.At the United National Congress (UNC) Monday night meeting at Gasparillo Secondary School, Minister in the Ministry of Finance and Economy Rudranath Indarsingh spoke about the establishment of the new company but did not give any details.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Indarsingh did not want to reveal the name of the new company. He said the government is yet to finalise the directors and management.Asked for further information, Indarsingh would only say that the new company will be doing "the traditional things that Clico is doing, nothing outside of that." He did not give a timeframe for when the company will begin operations.
However, a source said the company, to be called Atrius, will deal with life insurance and pensions."You know Clico did house and property insurance. We will not be doing that," said the source who also revealed that the company will absorb the accounts of existing policy holders.He said government has assured that stringent measures will be in place to prevent a re-occurrence of the Clico catastrophe.
In his address on Monday night, Indarsingh said: "Today I could successfully report to you that we have established the Clico Investment Fund. It is now trading on the T&T Stock Exchange and we are on the verge of establishing a new entity to succeed Clico and we must be able to tell ourselves that while it has cost taxpayers of T&T $25 billion we have saved T&T from financial collapse and ruin."
With regards to the Hindu Credit Union Co-operative Society Ltd, he said the ministry continues to mail out information packages to shareholders with deposits and shares of over $75,000.
