Poised for continuing growth

Government is solidly behind the captives sector in Cayman, and we will continue to work with all parties to ensure that our products and services meet market needs, and internationally accepted regulatory requirements, The Hon Wayne Panton, Minister of Financial Services and Commerce, writes.

With the needs generated by the US Affordable Care Act, and more small and medium enterprises realising the benefits of group captives, the captive insurance market is poised to continue growing for years to come.

So, too, is Cayman poised to accommodate this growth by continuing to provide superior products and services for the captive insurance market, which is incredibly important to our jurisdiction.

The 2014 Cayman Captive Forum again brought together risk managers and service providers to discuss how we can best work together to strengthen and develop this sector.

The value that attendees place on this event is proved by the attendance records that are broken, year after year. On behalf of my colleagues in government and the people of these Islands, I am pleased that Forum solidifies this country’s reputation as a world-class international financial centre, and as the place to do business—in fact, Cayman is the second largest jurisdiction for captives, and the leader in healthcare captives, with 34 percent of this segment.

There are numerous time-proven reasons why we have done so well.

First, we have an exceptionally strong professional corps in insurance, and also in law, banking, and accounting. While most of our business is US-based, the diversity of nationalities in our industry is well suited to serve a client base that is anything but homogenous. In Cayman, we understand and capably meet your needs and the needs of your clients, whether the business comes from the US, South America, Europe, or Asia.

Our current legislative framework broadly attracts captive business, including group captives and segregated portfolio companies; when enacted, our portfolio insurance company legislation will attract business from small and medium enterprises.

Also, as most of you reading the publication already know, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority is another distinguisher. While CIMA staff uphold our internationally recognised regulatory framework, they also take the time to understand their clients, in order to serve them efficiently, effectively and proactively.

Another regulatory strength is our Insurance Law, which includes a separate class for open-market reinsurer licences. This allows CIMA to differentiate between captives and reinsurers, and therefore to effectively regulate risks inherent to different licensees in the market.

Furthermore, our tax transparency enhances Cayman’s attractiveness. For more than a decade government has entered into an increasing number of bilateral and multilateral tax information-exchange agreements.

And significantly, in October this year, we signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement, which sets the worldwide standard for automatic exchange of information among tax authorities. This builds upon our previous significant commitments, including our signing of intergovernmental agreements with the UK and US regarding tax information exchange.

Although there are more reasons that can be mentioned, these few that I’ve outlined certainly help to establish Cayman’s world-class reputation for excellence in financial services.

Government is solidly behind the captives sector in Cayman, and will continue to work with all parties to ensure that our products and services meet market needs, and internationally accepted regulatory requirements. We want to do more than just maintain the captives business—like you, we want it to grow.

To all participants in the industry, I offer my sincere thanks for being integral to the current—and future—success of the captives sector in the Cayman Islands.