The Bermuda Business Development Corporation welcomed the Bermuda Monetary Authority release of its updated new insurance company registration figures through July 2013, which indicated that 47 new insurers have been formed and registered in Bermuda this year including 13 in July alone. The total number of insurers' incorporations marks an 81% increase over the same period a year ago.
Commenting on the Bermuda Monetary Authority announcement, Stephen Lund, CEO of the BBDC said "Bermuda's insurance market is clearly thriving with a dramatic increase in new insurance company registrations this year. This is a welcome trend and very positive development, which validates and reinforces Bermuda's approach to commercially responsible regulation that facilitates new insurance company formation, attracts capital and enables companies to underwrite business. While some have suggested that the Bermuda market would experience declines and there would be a noticeable shift of new formations to other markets both onshore and offshore, the data shows that it is clear that this is simply not true. Bermuda is, and remains, the world's risk capital. There is no other insurance market like Bermuda in the world that has the regulatory infrastructure and experience, the depth of industry talent, the ability to innovate and the access to capital."
Of the 13 new registrations in July, seven were Special Purpose Insurers (SPI's) with projected premiums of more than $151m in their first year of operation and more than $1.7bn over the next five years. The SPI's have a range of business activities including: property catastrophe reinsurance; life and annuity; and, catastrophe bonds.
In addition, there were several new captive insurers formed across multiple business lines reflecting Bermuda's flexibility and the continuing popularity of these insurance vehicles. The number of captives registered in Bermuda has remained steady over the past three years, despite the global economy and competitive pressure, which reflects the reality that the re-domestication trend never occurred.
Added Lawrence Bird, BBDC Board member, "We are very pleased with the continued stability and indeed vibrancy of the captive market in Bermuda. Our captive sector of the insurance industry has been actively marketing Bermuda and those efforts have contributed to these formations in July and are further highlighted by the three new captive formations earlier this year from Latin America. While we have all heard the noise in the marketplace from our competitors about redomestications, the facts do not reflect the reality-Bermuda is a dynamic captive marketplace with regulatory excellence, significant industry expertise and real competitive offerings that are attracting new formations from both traditional and new market sources."
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