BDA’s Webber lauds ILS market’s role in Bermuda

“It’s been an extraordinary journey and we at the Bermuda Development Agency (BDA) are very proud to have played our part in this journey,” said Ross Webber, chief executive officer of the BDA, told delegates at the start of the second day of the Convergence 2017 conference.

“We have a very close affinity for this industry and what it says about Bermuda’s world-class market,” he said. “Our island is unrivalled in the scope and speed of ILS development, and we’ve worked hard alongside our fellow stakeholders to keep it that way. We at the BDA, alongside IL Bermuda, have promoted the sector.”

Webber said that it was now clear that the ILS sector was no longer viewed as an outlier in the larger market, especially in Bermuda, and that it would be fair to say that ILS has gone mainstream as traditional reinsurers have adopted to the paradigm and Bermuda has solidified its reputation as the world’s risk capital.

“It’s that brand of intellectual capital, collaboration and innovation that sets the Bermuda market apart,” Webber said. “It’s what makes this jurisdiction so attractive to ILS, cat bonds, side cars, hedge funds re, and so on.”

Webber said that the Island now had something in the region of three quarters of the world’s total capacity in global cat bonds, now listed on the Bermuda stock exchange and that the BDA very much appreciated the impact that the convergence market has on Bermuda’s economy.

In 2016 the BDA commissioned a survey that showed that Bermuda-based ILS fund managers contribute several million dollars of GDP and employ more than 200 Bermudians and international workers and according to Webber those numbers continue to increase, with more insurance-linked fund managers being based in Bermuda than in any other jurisdiction.