The Belize government has secured a judicial order, placing CLICO (Belize) Limited under the management of the country's Supervisor of Insurance, Alma Gomez.

In a press statement on the weekend, Gomez said her office had secured the assets of CLICO Belize and assumed full control of the company's statutory reserves.

The move follows a February 24 order issued by the Supreme Court of the Bahamas for the liquidation of CLICO (Bahamas) Limited, which operates the Belize subsidiary.

no issuing of new policies

Other regional subsidiaries have also been affected by recent financial troubles facing CLICO's parent company, the Trinidad-based CL Financial.

With the local operations of CLICO now under state control, the company is barred from issuing any new policies, varying any existing contracts or repatriating any funds out of Belize.

The company is also prohibited from disposing of any assets without the prior written consent of the Supervisor of Insurance.

Keep policies active

However, the release said the company would be allowed to continue servicing existing contracts that were issued prior to February 25.

In the meantime, the Supervisor of Insurance has appealed to Belizean policyholders to continue paying their premiums and to keep their policies active.

She said while the government has been forced to step in to protect local investors, the problems at CLICO were not a reflection of the general state of health of the insurance industry in Belize.

According to Gomez, at the end 2007 the insurance companies in Belize collectively held BZE$165 million (US$84 million) in assets and wrote and recorded BZE$111 million (US$55 million) in income from premiums.

Of that amount, CLICO Belize holds only five per cent.