The US Virgin Islands are set to make a “gigantic leap” into the captive sector, according to Ashton Bertrand, superintendent of alternative markets at the US Virgin Islands division of banking and insurance.
Bertrand suggested that, based on conversations at the Vermont Captive Insurance Association Conference, new captive owners are looking at the US Virgin Islands as a potential domicile destination and current owners are looking to redomesticate there.
The US Virgin Islands captive programme currently has five captive companies, all of which are single-parent companies.
Bertrand said: “This is an emerging market with legislation already in place to take advantage of the surge in captive formation that is expected in emerging markets especially with small and medium enterprises as well as international business entities.”
“These legislations also cover protected cells including segregated accounts, qualified managers, special-purpose financial captives, association international insurance companies, and industrial insured international insurance companies.”
Bertrand also suggested that the location of the US Virgin Islands, close to the US and Latin America, “gives us a competitive advantage in linking these two regions of the Americas”.
