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MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2025
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Gov’t bids to drop ‘birth month’ auto coverage mandate t .JOJNVN JOTVSBODF DPTUT SJTJOH AOPU CFGPSF UJNF By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net INSURERS have hailed the Government’s move to abandon the “counter productive” stipulation that all Bahamian and resident drivers must annually renew auto insurance coverage in their birth month. The Davis administration, in legislation tabled in Parliament alongside the mid-year Budget last week, unveiled an amendment to the Road Traffic Act that eliminates the ‘birth month’ requirement and instead replaces it with language mandating that drivers and companies merely renew their auto insurance on an annual basis. The Bill introduced last week now reads: “A policy of insurance shall be renewed annually by an insured person.” This compares to the clause six, section ten that was passed
into law by Parliament less than a year ago, which currently states: “A policy of insurance shall be renewable annually within the birth month of the insured person.” The Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2025, the latest part of the Government’s legislative push to crack down on the numerous uninsured drivers causing havoc on Bahamian roads, effectively represents a government u-turn that has occurred in less than 12 months on the ‘birth month’ requirement. “The Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill, 2025, seeks to make provision for the deletion of the requirement in subsection (6) of section 10 of the Road Traffic Act that a policy of insurance shall be renewable annually within the birth month of the insured person, and to substitute
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Bahamian broker faces $11m insolvency fears By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN broker/dealer has been placed in Supreme Courtsupervised liquidation amid fears it is almost $11m insolvent and unable to fully repay clients what they are owed. Sir Ian Winder, the chief justice, via a February 25, 2025, signed Order agreed with the Securities Commission that LCG Capital Markets be wound-up amid concerns over multiple supervisory breaches that included “a significant regulatory capital deficiency”; repeatedly late audited financial statements; and “non-compliance with corporate governance obligations”. Legal documents seen by Tribune Business also reveal that, during its first four years in The Bahamas, LCG Capital Markets incurred combined losses of more than $18m to yearend 2021. And its chief executive and sole director, Sean Munnings, submitted his resignation on September
t 4JS *BO PSEFST -$( $BQJUBM .BSLFUT XJOE VQ t 5SPVCMFE mSN IBE N MPTTFT JO GPVS ZFBST CHRISTINA ROLLE SIR IAN WINDER t $BQJUBM EFmDJFODZ records, as well as its bank accounts TJODF A and other assets, as they begin the HPWFSOBODF XPF task of recovering funds’ due to 13, 2024, some two months after the Securities Commission was warned it “was unable to continue” due to its Swiss parent’s troubles. The Chief Justice, in his Order last week, named Bahamian accountants James B. Gomez and Noreen TaylorCampbell, both of Ecovis Bahamas, as LCG Capital Markets’ joint official liquidators. They will now be in the early stages of taking control of all the broker/dealer’s corporate
clients. The Securities Commission, in its December 4, 2024, winding-up petition as well as an accompanying affidavit from Christina Rolle, its executive director, asserted that the Bahamas-based broker/dealer’s demise stemmed directly from the regulatory woes encountered by FlowBank, its Swiss-based parent. Regulators in that European nation initiated bankruptcy
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‘Game played in shadow’: Realtors lose on strike-out By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A SUPREME Court judge has ordered that a real estate firm, co-founded by the Bahamas’ ambassador to Morocco, be named as a defendant in a $112,000 construction contract dispute. Justice Simone Fitzcharles, in a February 24, 2025, ruling stipulated that Darville Wong Realty Ltd, one of whose cofounders is also a former Bahamas Real Estate Association (BREA), be added alongside two other parties as defendants against Lashan Butler’s claim that the agreement to construct
her Killarney Shores subdivision home was breached. The judge, who also ordered that Darville Construction and Property Management and Gregory Ndlovu also be joined to the action as defendants, described the relationship between the three and their alleged connections to Ms Butler’s property as akin to “a game played in shadow” in her written ruling. William Wong, now The Bahamas’ emissary to Morocco and a former BREA president, denied that the real estate firm or himself had anything to do with construction of Ms Butler’s home or the ongoing litigation. “This
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Super Value making ‘good progress’ on cheaper eggs By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net SUPER Value’s president is voicing optimism that it will “shortly” be able to offer lower-priced eggs to hard-pressed Bahamian consumers after sourcing supplies from outside the bird flu-ravaged US. Debra Symonette, while declining to place a timeline on when this will occur or the extent of the savings shoppers can expect, did tell Tribune Business that the 13-store chain anticipates bringing “a big relief” to Bahamians once product from its new sources starts to arrive on-island and reaches the shelves.
Reiterating that $8-$9plus prices for a dozen eggs are not resulting from Super Value placing “an outrageous mark-up” on them, as this is a food subject to government price controls, she said there is presently no need to copy the tactics employed by some US supermarkets who are restricting the quantities consumers can purchase amid bird fly-driven supply shortages. “We’re continuing to make the effort to source cheaper eggs, and hopefully we’ll be able to offer a lower price to the public shortly once we get everything sorted,” Ms
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