fp Turks and Caicos

Three groups of investors offering to save TCI Bank made their sales pitches to creditors on Grand Turk, North Caicos and Providenciales on July 23-24, offering similar plans to return more customers’ money that liquidation.

All three suitors offered similar plans, all repaying a $5.5 million loan by the National Insurance Board shortly before the bank was closed in April by the Financial Services Commission.

Then they each offer to put money into the bank and reopen it, giving depositors back varying amounts of their money. Two of the three groups made presentations on Provo.

ECIC Holdings Ltd. is a private company held by 10 indigenous banks from Grenada, St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla. Some of those banks have $15 million deposited in TCI Bank and own 48 percent of the bank’s shares.

ECIC’s offer would give customers full access to accounts containing up to $50,000 on the day the bank reopens, with an extra $50,000 available in loans over the first year. The rest of the depositors would have to leave their money in the bank for up to five years, but they could borrow against their money.

Investors David Kosoy and Phil Biden offered to pay each depositor $1,500, which would repay fully 3,458 of 4,464 depositors. The rest would get as much as 85 percent of their money periodically over three to five years.

The Temple/Altima group, which did not make a presentation on Provo, also offered to repay as much money as possible to all depositors.

The Creditors Committee hopes to regain as much as possible of their $15 million in the bank, as does the NIB, which with $22 million is the single largest creditor of the bank.

If any of the offers are accepted by Justice Richard Williams after a hearing Aug. 3, the FSC will have to approve the deal before it goes into effect.

If none of the offers are accepted, the bank will go into full liquidation, which provisional liquidator Anthony Kikivarakis has said will take a minimum of two to three years.

Liquidation will also mean depositors will not receive all their money back and what they do get will come in small payments over time.

The five-year-old bank had been suffering for nearly two years from mounting unpaid real estate loans, which prompted the independent FSC to shut the bank to protect the remaining assets of shareholders and depositors.