Browne accuses Stroll of breaching an agreement through his lawsuit and therefore putting all GBC depositors at risk

Prime Minister Gaston Browne is blaming businessman Jack Stroll
for failing to honour an agreement that would have protected the
Global Bank of Commerce (GBC) and prevented a run on the bank.

Speaking in Parliament on Thursday, February 22, and responding
to a question posed by MP Algernon “Serpent” Watts, Browne said
that Stroll had gone public with his situation by filing a lawsuit.
This, he says, breached an agreement that sought to ensure there
would be no run on the bank and to maintain an orderly situation in
which creditors would exercise some level of restraint.
 
Browne claims that a meeting was held with Stroll – a businessman
who had deposited more than US$10 million in GBC – and he was
advised, by way of a letter, that the Government was willing to
subordinate its own deposits with the bank against Treasury Bills
issued to Stroll.
 
This was done, according to Browne, to avert the type of public
display now being exhibited by Stroll – whom he described, in 2023,
as being “greedy” and “politically motivated” for attempting to
withdraw his money.

Now, Browne, who is also the minister of finance, claims that the
businessman’s action has gone as far as affecting the viability, to
some extent, of Global Bank.
 
What Stroll has done, he says, has placed all the bank’s depositors at
risk – since, if the bank ends up in liquidation, all depositors will lose
a significant portion of their funds.
 
Because Stroll failed to keep his end of the bargain, PM Browne
further explains, the Government opted to set off a portion of the
bonds he holds against its own deposits in order to reduce its
liability.

Cabinet issued a guarantee to Global Bank of Commerce on June 2
2022, assuring that the funds would be available by August 27, 2022
to Stroll. However, the Government failed to honour that guarantee.

Earlier, Stroll had revealed that he had taken the matter to court
specifically because the Government had reneged on its agreement
for early redemption of the Treasury instruments he held.
Asked whether he had obtained parliamentary approval for the
payment promised to Stroll, Browne said it was not required for this
decision.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne.