CBL Insurance boss Peter Harris withdraws from Entrepreneur of the Year
AUCKLAND: Peter Harris, the boss of troubled insurer CBL, has withdrawn as New Zealand’s entry to the EY Entrepreneur of the Year global competition.
Harris was crowned as the country’s entrepreneur of the year last October by an independent judging panel. He was due to head to Monaco in June to represent New Zealand in the global competition.
However, given revelations about CBL Corporation in the past week, Harris had withdrawn from the contest. EY said it ‘‘became aware of the Reserve Bank investigation into CBL Corporation only after Peter Harris was awarded New Zealand Entrepreneur Of The Year. ‘‘We remain supportive of the independent NZ EOY judging panel which made its decision in October 2017, based on the financial and other information supplied by the nominee.
‘‘Under the terms and condi tions of the EOY programme, as accepted by Peter Harris, the NZ EOY award can be revoked if a participant has, or is alleged to have, engaged in actions that would adversely reflect on the programme. Any such decision will be taken pending the outcome of the investigation,’’ EY said.
CBL Insurance, a subsidiary of NZXlisted CBL Corporation, was placed under control of McGrathNicol late last month after the Reserve Bank made an application through the High Court at Auckland.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand says it asked for CBLInsurance (CBLI) to be put into an interim liquidation after the company paid $55 million to overseas companies, breaching the central bank’s orders.
Parent company CBL Corp, an Aucklandbased credit surety and financial insurance risk firm, had its stock suspended from the NZX on February 8 amid concerns from NZX Regulation about the information it had given the market, following engagement between it, CBL, the Financial Markets Authority (FMA), the Reserve Bank, and overseas regulators with prudential oversight of CBL’s international insurance business.
On February 20, CBL Insurance told the Reserve Bank it was continuing to operate, despite being below the minimum regulatory solvency level.
The central bank’s concerns about CBL Insurance’s reserving policies and regulatory solvency were being reviewed with the company and through an independent investigation, and the Reserve Bank had told CBL it needed approval to make any significant transactions.
CBL Insurance describes itself as ‘‘New Zealand’s largest and oldest credit surety and financialrisk provider’’. It operates in 25 countries.
Its parent, CBL Corporation, appointed voluntary administrators KordaMentha over last weekend to prevent other regulators from taking action after the Reserve Bank move.
NZX suspended CBL Corporation stock earlier this month due to concerns the market operator’s regulation team had about whether the company had given complete and true material information to the market.
Trading in the stock was halted before the suspension, and news emerged over subsequent days that prudential regulators in New Zealand and overseas questioned the adequacy of reserves for its French construction insurance division, prompting a creditrating downgrade and prospective capital raise.
CBL Corporation last week said its European subsidiary’s lawyers were opposing an order from the Central Bank of Ireland instructing it to stop writing new business immediately.
CBL said its subsidiary CBL Insurance Europe Dac was continuing to otherwise operate normally and policies remained in force. — NZME/BusinessDesk