The Guernsey Financial Services Commission has revealed it licensed three new captives, four new captive cells, and two special purpose vehicles in 2020, while 18 captives or cells surrendered their licenses. Guernsey ended 2020 with 291 captives licensed and 43 special purpose vehicles, a decrease on 2019’s figures where Guernsey ended the year with 305 captives. Guernsey Finance suggests that 2021 has already seen a new captive company, protected cell company and individual cell formations. At the end of last year, Guernsey introduced a pilot scheme for pre-authorisation for insurance cells, which is due to run to the end of 2021. According to Guernsey Finance, this was introduced to accelerate the licence application process “to deal with the surge in interest”. Under the pilot, captives can be formed within 48 hours, allowing a captive option to remain a viable part of renewal consideration right up to the renewal date. Guernsey Finance explains that the scheme is currently limited to protected cells, hosted by a protected cell company that is owned by a licensed insurance manager. “Initial interest has been positive and the first formations using the scheme took place immediately on launch,” it adds. Mike Johns, chairman of the Guernsey International Insurance Association (GIIA), says: “New business has started to flow, which is excellent news, and I expect that we will see 2021 and 2022 proving to be good years for new formations and licensees.” “Guernsey was also seeing greater use of existing captives as owners looked to introduce new lines of business into their captive structures to counter hard market conditions,” Johns adds. Since the start of the beginning of February, both Strategic Risk Solutions (SRS) and Davies have announced plans to launch captive management operations in Guernsey. As part of its newly established operations, SRS has appointed Peter Child as managing director of SRS Guernsey Management. Meanwhile, Davies says its new office in Guernsey will broaden its established captive management operations in Bermuda and the US.
