CIMA explores new licence categories as captives grow

The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) is working to establish new licence categories to better regulate the growing number and variety of firms seeking to establish insurance operations in Cayman – many of which are captives.

Delivering CIMA’s 2025 regulatory update at the Cayman Captive Forum last week, Kara Ebanks, head of the insurance division, told sister publication Captive Review that work is ongoing to review the Insurance Act for the creation of new reinsurance broker and MGA licences, as well as a new B (iv) class of international insurer company.

Ebanks also gave the latest statistics for the Cayman insurance market. She revealed there are 723 international insurance companies licensed in Cayman. There have been 38 new insurance entities formed in Cayman this year, 37 of which are international insurance and reinsurance companies.

There are another six applications approved by CIMA in principle, as the jurisdiction looks to surpass 2024’s total of 42 new formations.

Of the new formations Ebanks said that 52% of the new formations have been B(i) captives. Of these, around 44% of the formations are group captives, with the 56% single-parent pure captives.

Ebanks highlighted the increased interest in group captives, having made up 30% of new captive formations in 2024.

Did you get value from this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.