Bermuda praised for acting faster to protect its reputation

Bermuda is starting to act more quickly and becoming more proactive when it comes to defending its reputation and better explaining its global importance, especially when it is unfairly lumped in with other offshore jurisdictions in the aftermath of news stories such as the Panama Papers.

That was a key theme of a round table discussion held at the Bermuda Captive Conference on Monday June 13, chaired by Grainne Richmond, vice president of Dyna Management Services and president of the Bermuda Insurance Management Association (BIMA).

The panel, which included Jill Husbands, managing director of Marsh Bermuda; Craig Swan, managing director, supervision, Bermuda Monetary Authority; Alan Gier, chairman of General Insurance Company and vice-president of the Bermuda Captive Owners Association; and Ross Webber, chief executive of the Bermuda Business Development Agency (BDA).

“Bermuda is doing a better job of getting in front of the debate when Bermuda gets lumped in with other offshore jurisdictions, especially when things like the Panama Papers draw attention globally to the nature of some offshore jurisdictions,” Richmond said.

“That has been driven by the work of the BDA to a certain extent but the government and all bodies are getting better at responding quickly which is very important.”

Richmond added that Bermuda securing Solvency II equivalence has also been a very important in terms of countering any negative comments or publicity about Bermuda. “It is a stamp of approval that has been given by someone else and that is very helpful,” she said.

She said the panel also highlighted the importance of collaboration between the many different representative bodies on Bermuda. She said that a big part of educating the world about what Bermuda does best comes from statistics but these only become available and have context if these bodies share information and work together.