deVere Group has received approval from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) for the licence of its captive insurance company, White Knight.
The captive will be led by a team of directors including Peter Hobbs, deVere chairman.
The board also includes Peter Moffat, formerly with the GFSC and Bank of England and David Moore, a UK corporate lawyer.
Alternative Risk Management (ARM), an independent manager based in Guernsey, has been appointed to handle the insurance management of White Knight.
The approval marks deVere’s first insurance company licence in northern Europe.
Nigel Green, deVere Group CEO and founder, explained that one of the drivers behind the move is that deVere Group and its subsidiaries have seen “premiums climbing rapidly” particularly within the area of professional indemnity (PI) cover.
He said: “This has made expense predictions for this cover somewhat difficult with some premiums doubling and trebling over the last few years. We, therefore, decided to take firmer control of the matter and will start to underwrite PI and selective other internal risks for its subsidiaries around the world.”
“The deVere Group was well-minded that White Knight should more than meet its minimum capital requirements as well as its prescribed capital requirement to ensure stability.”
Green noted that the captive approval represents “a further positive development for deVere, which continually seeks to grow and adapt in order to meet evolving market conditions”.