The captive market has a leading role to play in propelling the shift in the risk landscape and ensuring stability in a hard market, affirmed panellists at this year’s Asian Captive Conference 2022. Organised by Labuan IBFC Incorporated Sdn Bhd (Labuan IBFC Inc.) and the Labuan International Insurance Association (LIIA), the conference welcomed more than 150 participants comprising regulators, insurance professionals, investors, government agencies, media and professional service providers. Labuan IBFC Inc.'s executive chairman and CEO, Datuk Iskandar Mohd Nuli, delivered the welcoming remarks. He said: “We hope the Asian Captives Conference 2022 will serve as an ideal platform for insurance professionals to come together to actively share and exchange ideas on ensuring the continued growth and momentum of the captive market.” The keynote address was presented by Yang Berusaha Encik Nik Mohamed Din Nik Musa, director general of Labuan Financial Services Authority (Labuan FSA). In his speech, he highlighted that a key success factor to the sustained growth of Labuan IBFC is the well-regulated business environment which provides confidence to investors to continue using Labuan IBFC. He outlined: “In charting the continued growth and building on the position of strength, Labuan FSA will continue to strengthen the competitiveness of Labuan captive business under the five-year Labuan IBFC's Strategic Roadmap launched in June 2022.” Highlights from the conference include captives’ increased opportunity in a post-COVID-19 landscape that is focused on increased supervision and enhanced risk management frameworks. Another notable topic discussed was the impact of the Organisation for Economic and Cooperation Development’s BEPS 2.0 framework and how captives will continue to adhere to international standards and best practices. The panel discussions mapped out the global captive landscape post-COVID, in terms of key growth industries, emerging risk and regulatory developments. These examined how alternative reinsurance capital can be utilised to bring stability in a hard market. There was also a special dialogue on protected cell companies (PCC), including essential recommendations on forming a PCC, the basics of forming a PCC, the benefits posed by PCCs, and the significance of captive processes and controls. The conference closed with a discussion of the position of captives in ESG schemes. Panellists shared how captives can be used to address company-wide ESG concerns and the unique features of captives that enable them to easily assume responsibility for all organisational risks including those that are sustainability-related.
