Nagico Fine Raised to US$2.4 Million as Aruba Appeals Court Largely Backs Regulator
BUSINESS · ARUBA
Key Facts
- —The country Aruba is a self-governing Dutch Caribbean island with its own central bank, which licenses and supervises insurers. Its florin (Afl) is pegged at 1.79 per US dollar.
- —What happened The appeals court raised the combined fine on two Nagico units to nearly Afl 4.3 million (about US$2.4 million), NoticiaCla reported on 29 September 2026.
- —The numbers Central bank fine, February 2023: Afl 5.93 million (about US$3.3 million). First-instance cut, January 2025: about Afl 2.2 million (about US$1.2 million). Appeal: over Afl 2.13 million each.
- —What it means for you The fine punishes governance, integrity and IT-security failures, not unpaid claims. Central bank guidelines on these topics can now be enforced as binding rules.
- —Still open The appeal ruling has not yet appeared in the public court database. Neither Nagico nor the central bank had commented publicly as of 30 September.
The Nagico fine in Aruba has almost doubled on appeal. The Joint Court of Justice ordered Nagico Aruba N.V. and Nagico Life Insurance (Aruba) N.V. to pay nearly Afl 4.3 million (about US$2.4 million) together, NoticiaCla reported on 29 September.
The penalty covers 19 breaches of integrity, corporate governance and IT-security rules. The appeal judges largely reversed a 2025 lower-court ruling that had cut the sum to about Afl 2.2 million (about US$1.2 million).
What the Nagico fine is for
The case began with a whistleblower report dated 14 June 2020. It accused senior managers of conflicts of interest, intimidation of staff and privacy breaches, according to the 2025 ruling.
The Central Bank of Aruba (CBA), which supervises the island’s insurers, inspected Nagico from November to December 2020. It found shortcomings in sound business operations, corporate governance and IT risk management.
The breaches included conflicts of interest and no clearly identifiable compliance officer. Screening of integrity-sensitive jobs was insufficient, and the supervisory board fell short in its oversight, NoticiaCla reported.
On the IT side, controls over who could access systems were inadequate. The group’s then chief executive resigned in August 2020 after the board suspended him, the ruling records.
How the amount moved
On 22 February 2023 the central bank imposed a joint fine of Afl 5,928,750 (about US$3.31 million). In September 2023 it split this into two equal fines of Afl 2,964,375 (about US$1.66 million) each.
On 29 January 2025 the Court of First Instance of Aruba cut each fine to Afl 1,095,000 (about US$612,000). It treated the 19 findings as three broad offences and noted Nagico had never been fined before.
Both sides appealed. The Joint Court, the appeals court for Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and the Dutch Caribbean islands, has largely sided with the regulator.
It held that the bank could treat the 19 shortcomings as separate violations and, in principle, fine each one. The law allows up to Afl 1 million (about US$559,000) per violation.
Why the Nagico fine was not fully restored
The judges did not return to the original Afl 5.93 million (about US$3.3 million). Because several violations were linked, they applied a further 25 percent reduction, NoticiaCla reported.
Earlier discounts for Nagico’s willingness to improve and its financial capacity also stayed in place. Each company must now pay slightly more than Afl 2.13 million (about US$1.19 million).
Why it matters beyond Nagico
The ruling gives Aruba’s financial supervisor firmer footing. The court confirmed that CBA guidelines on integrity and governance can be binding when they fall within its legal powers.
That means banks and insurers can be fined separately for each guideline they break. For customers, the case concerns how the firms were run; neither report points to a solvency problem.
Nagico is a regional property, casualty and life insurer headquartered in Sint Maarten. Its ownership and results are set out in this profile of NAGICO Insurances Ltd.
What Is Not Yet Known
The full appeal judgment, including its date and exact amounts, had not been published on the public court database by 30 September. The account above rests on NoticiaCla’s report and the published 2025 ruling.
It is also unclear whether any further legal step remains open to Nagico. A separate central bank fine on the former executive is not covered by this appeal.
Sources: NoticiaCla, “Court raises Nagico Aruba fines to nearly Afl. 4.3 million” (and Papiamento edition), 29 September 2026; Court of First Instance of Aruba, ruling ECLI:NL:OGEAA:2025:45, 29 January 2025; Amigoe Aruba, 29 September 2026. Afl converted at the fixed rate of 1.79 per US$.
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