WILLEMSTAD - The Social Insurance Bank (SVB) is in danger of falling into negative balance due to a decrease in premium income. This is caused by the developments around the COVID-19 crisis.

Under the heading 'Outlook', the SVB states in the annual report that the management wants to use the legal reserves to cover the liquidity shortage. It is also expected that the government will reserve funds.

At the end of last year, SVB posted a positive balance of more than 24 million guilders. At the end of 2018, that was still almost 63 million guilders. The exact expectations for this year are of course not stated in the annual report.

In recent years, according to the SVB, there has been declining premium income and increasing payments for most funds. The payments from the Basic Insurance Fund (BVZ) have increased even more in this regard due to the opening of Curaçao Medical Center in November last year.