impressive-growth
1 January 1970Cayman analysis

Impressive growth through quality


As the Insurance Managers Association of Cayman (IMAC) launches its 19th successive Cayman Captive Forum, Cayman Finance salutes the organisation’s stellar efforts in building a world class event for the global captive insurance sector.

The quality and consistency of IMAC in the Cayman Captive Forum over almost two decades mirrors this jurisdiction’s approach towards maintaining the Cayman Islands as a leading choice for captives. Balanced regulation that adheres to international standards and high quality professional infrastructure remains top of the list of reasons that year after year, captives continue to choose Cayman over other jurisdictions.

Since 2000 the number of captives in the Cayman Islands has grown by more than 43 percent and Cayman looks on track to achieve 50 percent growth by the end of 2011. The industry has also quickly recovered from the drop in the number of captives in 2010 as a result of the global recession and is widely expected to be back to those record levels at the end of this year when official statistics become available.

The stability displayed by the captive insurance sector during the financial crisis reflects what has occurred in other segments of the Cayman Islands financial services industry, with hedge funds showing impressive growth and having felt very little negative fallout during the crisis. The assets in our banking sector remain equally strong. Cayman has maintained its position as one of the world’s top banking domiciles and was recently ranked number one in the Specialised Financial Centres category for the third year in a row by the highly respected The Banker ranking of international financial centres.

The Cayman Islands’ continued recognition by the OECD Global Forum as a transparent jurisdiction is supported by numerous positive reviews of our regulatory and international cooperation over the years and this aspect is also an important feature of the quality of the Cayman Islands product from a captive insurance perspective and more generally as one of the world’s leading international financial centres.

Cayman Finance welcomes all delegates to the 2011 Cayman Captive Forum. We are confident that whether you are here to hold key meetings, meet with existing or potential service providers, learn more about the Cayman Islands’ captive environment, or enjoy the Cayman hospitality, your visit will be productive and that all of our public and private sector stakeholders will continue to work with you towards achieving your goals.

Richard Coles is the chairman of Cayman Finance. He can be contacted at: rhcoles@candw.ky