Insurance Bill goes to JSC

Attorney-General Faris Al-Rawi said the bill enacts lessons learnt from the 2008 global financial crisis and 2009 local crisis, and fills gaps in the current law. He justified the bill by saying insurance companies were backed by insufficient capital to justify the size of their exposure to risk, citing the case of CL Financial whereby a $300 billion conglomerate was backed by its insurance arm having just $3 million capital in its statutory fund. He urged a shift from this “de minimis” (that is, minimal) model, to a riskbased capital model.

Better corporate governance via board, shareholders, auditors and accountants, and regulators, would also be provided by the Bill, he said.

Contagion risk, seen in 2009, also needs attention in the bill. Saying 37 percent of TT’s GDP lies within the insurance and pensions sectors, he said these are large sections of the economy that constitute a risk that must be well-managed. Al-Rawi hailed the work of past JSCs under their past chairmen, former finance ministers, Winston Dookeran and Larry Howai.

Declaring the bill to be “a dagger in the heart of crime and criminality”, he cited similar law and order bills such as the Gambling Bill and Firearms Bill, as proof of the Government’s anti- crime thrust, declaring, “One, one cocoa does fill basket”.

Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh declared the Opposition’s support for the bill