Airmic Guernsey conference opens with focus on captives and resilience

The third Airmic Guernsey Conference has opened with a focus on the role of captive insurance in building resilience against an increasingly complex and unpredictable risk environment.

Opening the conference, Airmic chief executive Diane Maxwell (pictured) welcomed delegates to the event, which is being held in collaboration with Guernsey Finance. She highlighted Guernsey's position as a “world-leading jurisdiction” for captives, pointing to its talent, professional services, wider insurance ecosystem and engaged regulator.

Maxwell, a former regulator, said the quality of regulation was an important consideration for businesses establishing captive structures.

“We know in your jurisdiction shopping, it's not just about a good regime; it's about a good regulator who are available and engaged and listening,” she said.

She also described the current risk environment as rapidly evolving, citing artificial intelligence, cyber risk, climate change affecting supply chains and geopolitical tensions. Quantum technology, she added, would create another area of risk in the years ahead.

“Many of the risks are unknown and unknowable,” Maxwell said, describing this as a particular challenge for risk managers.

Airmic represents around 2,000 risk managers and has approximately 71 partners across the insurance, broking and reinsurance sectors, Maxwell said. The organisation's work includes special interest groups, events, training and development and thought leadership.

She also pointed to continued demand for face-to-face engagement despite the growth of digital communication, saying Airmic was seeing higher attendance at many of its events.

Maxwell said the organisation was working on a new website and customer relationship management system, which she said would help it better understand and respond to members' needs.

In his opening remarks, Guernsey Finance chief executive Barnaby Molloy said the conference was focused on “insurance market resilience” and how solutions could be developed to address complex risks including geopolitical uncertainty and climate change.

Molloy traced Guernsey's captive heritage back more than a century, noting that the island's first captive was established in 1922 and that its modern captive industry developed from the 1960s.

He also highlighted Guernsey's pioneering role in developing the Protected Cell Company structure in 1997.

According to figures cited by Molloy, Guernsey has 196 non-cellular captive insurers and a further 126 captive cells.

He said the island's captive expertise extended beyond those figures, pointing to the professionals working across Guernsey's insurance community.

Molloy said captives were attracting growing mainstream attention as organisations faced interconnected risks and traditional insurance capacity came under pressure. He described the emergence of a “captive-first approach” among businesses as part of that trend.

He also pointed to the UK's move towards establishing its own captive regime, describing it as a development that would bring greater visibility and credibility to the captive model.

For Guernsey, Molloy said, increased awareness of captives created an opportunity for the island to share its experience of supporting captive owners.

He highlighted the jurisdiction's regulatory framework and its history of innovation, including the Protected Cell Company and what he described as the world's first humanitarian catastrophe bond issued through a Guernsey-domiciled incorporated cell company in 2021.

The insurance market was increasingly combining different forms of risk transfer, Molloy said, with captives, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities forming part of more complex protection arrangements.

“The complex issues we all face in this modern world require new solutions,” he said.

The conference programme includes sessions on geopolitical risk, practical applications of captives, governance and regulation. Speakers are also due to discuss Guernsey's recent application for US qualified jurisdiction status with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Molloy said the event, now in its third year, had grown in scale and value and reflected the relationship between Guernsey Finance and Airmic.

He also acknowledged former Airmic chief executive Julia Graham, whom he credited, alongside former Guernsey Insurance Association chair Adele Gale, with helping establish the conference.

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