The Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) has announced a major investigation into Enterprise Insurance Company plc (Enterprise) and its board of directors.

The GFSC said in a statement that “it had reason to believe that it may have been significantly and consistently misled about Enterprise’s true financial position”.

The statement read:

• “The extent of the financial collapse of Enterprise is unprecedented. Insurance companies must be run in a sound and prudent manner and must safeguard the interests of policyholders.
• “The nature and extent of this insolvency demonstrates that this has not happened in this case, resulting in extensive losses with serious harm to consumers in all the countries in which Enterprise operated and to a wide range of creditors.”

The regulator said its investigation would focus on the apparent failure of the board to adequately govern the company and to report the company’s true financial position to the Commission.

It stated that the extent of this insolvency;

• “raises major questions about the competency and integrity of the Enterprise board”.

The GFSC has now invited the directors who hold regulated positions in other companies to voluntarily stand down from those other positions while under investigation.

The GFSC’s director of legal enforcement and policy, Peter Taylor, said:

• “The GFSC is shocked by the extent of the collapse of Enterprise. We have reason to think we may have been seriously misled.
• “Given the magnitude of the debt reported by the Provisional Liquidator and his view as to the serious contraventions by the company, we have major questions of the Enterprise board.

He continued:

• “The board is ultimately responsible for Enterprise’s actions and owe a duty to the company and to policyholders to ensure it does not cause harm or suffer losses such as we see here.
• “We consider it is critical for the reputation of Gibraltar to determine the extent to which any of the directors need to be held to account for what has occurred. We must get to the bottom of what has happened here and we will.”

Taylor noted that the outcome of the investigation was not yet clear:

• “We are in the initial stages of our investigation and while we have deep and serious concerns we need to await the outcome of all our enquiries.
• “I stress that the GFSC has not made any findings or reached any conclusions at this stage.”

The regulator said the details of the investigation were confidential and advised that any formal action arising from the probe in this case will be announced in due course.

• “We will be able to discuss what has happened here following the outcome of our inquiries and any resulting formal actions,” read the statement.

Enterprise was ordered to stop writing new business in July and called in administrators in September.

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