The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) received 67 applications for new captive licences in 2012, with 52 licences granted and the remainder scheduled for approval in 2013.
Since 1 January 2013, one licences has been approved and another 11 have been approved in principle. The total number of new licences accounts for an increase of more than 58 percent compared to 2011, and is the biggest year for captives since 2004.
Primarily known as a healthcare captive domicile, the 52 new formations came from various sectors including healthcare, life reinsurance, property and casualty reinsurance, manufacturing, and technology. A number of group captives were also formed as segregated portfolio companies.
Existing Cayman captives also dramatically grew their assets. Total premiums written were reported at $11.8 billion and total AUM climbed to $88.1 billion, their highest ever levels, which grew 24 percent and 51 percent respectively.
"Cayman understands the captive insurance business and the role it plays in the risk management space, and when I say Cayman, I mean the industry together with the regulator," said Rob Leadbetter, chairman of the Insurance Managers Association of Cayman (IMAC).
"These statistics are not surprising to us, because we have been building our core competencies over decades to make Cayman the go to domicile in the insurance industry."
