The continued growth of the Latin American captive market is very impressive considering the political instability across many of the domiciles, according to Bartolome Massot-Cristino, assistant vice president at Quest.
Speaking on the Latin American captives panel at the World Captive Forum, Massot-Cristino revealed that the predicted figures for the Latin American market show a 2.5 percent average growth in 2017, an increase from the 2.2 percent growth in 2016, and he expects a continued growth in 2018.
Massot-Cristino said: “The latest outlook by Mercosur, which is the common market in Latin America is telling us that the outlook is very good and it will continue for the foreseeable future.”
“Considering the political situation across these countries, a lot of political instability, we think these figures are very impressive.”
The Latin American market was hugely affected by the global financial crisis, as it lowered the price of commodities, and between 2010 and 2016 there was a deceleration in market growth, but according to Massot-Cristino this changed in 2017.
He explained: “For the last six years, from 2010 to 2016, we saw a deceleration in market growth. So, 2017 is the first year in seven years that we have seen an increase in growth and that is the outlook for the foreseeable future.”
Massot-Cristino puts a large part of the change of fortunes is down to a wave of young talent flooding the Latin American market.
He said: “The world is changing. A lot of young students who went to Europe and the US to study economics and finance - they are accountants and lawyers - very well educated young professionals are going back to their home countries.”
“What we have to realise is that these young people know what we do in more developed economies and they are doing it now in Latin America. That’s what makes it so interesting, this is the moment to divert more resources to the region.”
Another member of the panel, Esperanza Mead, principal of Actuarial Factor, suggested that due to its current size the Latin American market represents an excellent opportunity for growth.
“Today in the world we have approximately $90 billion in annual written premiums for captives. Out of that less than $3 billion comes from Latin America. That means there is an opportunity to grow captives in Latin America.”
The panel also included corporate commercial manager at Appleby Global Eduardo Fox, Javier Ordonez-Namihira, senior associate at Baker McKenzie, and Gabriel Rueda Barrera, director at Rueda y Barrera.
