Guernsey has experienced a big increase in inquiries into captive insurance in the second half of this year.
Industry figures showed that the level of significant inquiries received during the summer “easily surpassed” those in recent years.
Dominic Wheatley, chief executive of Guernsey Finance, said: “We are already seeing formations off the back of that.”
Wheatley revealed that Guernsey is responsible for more than a third of the European captives market and for more than half of all new captives established in Europe in 2017, with nine new formations.
In 2018, that number dipped to five, but the Guernsey industry is expecting to exceed that figure this year.
Wheatley explained: “Increased interest was expected as market conditions harden, but was proving stronger than anticipated.”
“We are also seeing an increase in enquiries because of emerging markets such as China as well as interest from other parts of the world including North America, which is unusual for us.”
He suggested that the increased interest in Guernsey’s captives market dismissed fears raised in Bermuda that EU economic substance requirements were damaging the offshore captives industry.
“Substance demands have not impacted too much for Guernsey captives, because our economic substance regime is robust and as a jurisdiction, we have always managed captives properly.”
According to Wheatley, Guernsey offers “strong governance processes, competent and credible insurance skills, proper analytics and technical underwriting methodology, and adherence at all of the requirements of CFC rules wherever the captive-owning group is based”.
He added: “All this was verified when the EU code group confirmed that our corporate tax regime met their expectations and requirements as acceptable in terms of transparency and cooperation.”
