Latin America captives present opportunities for Bermuda: PwC

The expanding markets of Latin America and Canada are driving an increasing interest in Bermuda’s captive industry.

This is the finding of PwC Bermuda’s captive and tax specialists, speaking at the Bermuda Captive Conference, which took place in June.

The conference, of which PwC Bermuda is a sponsor, drew a significant number of attendees from Latin America and a number of sessions were presented in Spanish with translation.

PwC said that while the uses and users of captive insurance companies have changed in the last few years, the changing regulatory environment has highlighted the importance of captives as both a tool for risk management and efficient capital use.

David Gibbons, PwC Bermuda captive insurance leader, said: “The fact that this conference had such high numbers of actively engaged attendees and sponsors shows the focus that many companies are putting in the usefulness of a captive.

“We all saw extensive interest from new market participants from Latin America and Canada where concern over risk management and mitigation benefits offered by a Bermuda captive fits well into their global structure and philosophy.

“We also saw existing captives looking for new ways to utilise the capital and connections in the reinsurance market they had built over the years to write new lines of business, specifically employee benefits and cyber risk.”

He added that Latin America, as an expanding market, is increasingly driving more business to Bermuda.

Stewart Ritchie, director of assurance, PwC Bermuda and chair of the BCC’s marketing subcommittee, said: “Being the largest captive insurance domicile in the world led to Bermuda becoming a top re/insurance domicile, which is able to attract global re/insurers. There are more than 800 active captives in Bermuda and there’s a huge service organisation that goes along with this, supporting many jobs on the island.”