British American Insurance Co. Ltd. will not be affected following the rescue of struggling parent company CL Financial by the government of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T).

That is according to British American Insurance, which has a branch in Bermuda and released a statement assuring policyholders and the public that the T&T government's decision to take over CL Financial subsidiaries, including themselves, CLICO, CLICO Investment Bank and brokerage house CMMB would not have any impact on its operation.

The Trinidad and Tobago Express revealed last week that the government had stepped in to appoint a new chairman and boards of directors to run British American Insurance and Colonial Life Insurance as one of the clauses set out in the Memorandum of Agreement with CL Financial. British American Insurance's statement said that the company was a separate entity with many branch operations and registered under the Insurance Act in each territory it operates in and is locally regulated, while maintaining a separate balance sheet from the other subsidiaries of the CL Financial Group.

"British American is celebrating over 88 years of operation and we are looking forward to continued growth," it read.

"We have an asset base throughout the Caribbean (including Panama and Bermuda) of approximately $1 billion.

"We will continue to exercise prudent management over our business and investment decisions; and operate in the interest of all our stakeholders."

The agreement with T&T states that CLICO and British American will restructure their businesses to conform to traditional life insurance, said the Express, with restructuring also including a "reconstitution of the board of directors, board committees and senior management".

Bermuda's Premier Ewart Brown told the Nation Newspaper in Barbados that he had heard about three weeks ago that CL Financial was in trouble.

The conglomerate's problems, and the decision by the T&T government to step in and try to limit the damage, said Dr. Brown, who was in New York receiving an award from the vice-chancellor of the University of West Indies, highlighted the need for more regulations to monitor the financial services sector in some countries, and for the region as a whole to work closer together to limit the damage, should more companies fail.

"It was not a total surprise because I had received information about three weeks ago that there was some difficulty and that there were people who thought they had figured a way to avoid," he was quoted as saying.

"Apparently, that was not successful."