Use of captives expanding as owners become braver

Increased “bravery” among captive owners is seeing corporates becoming more ambitious in their use of the vehicles, according to Ciaran Healy, director of client solutions for EMEA at Aon Captive & Insurance Managers.

“I’m seeing a lot more bravery among captive owners recently, and that’s really healthy,” he told  Airmic’s recent Captives Forum. Captives could even be used to test new coverages, he suggested.

“We can use the captive as a way to drive some of the changes that we need to see,” he said. “The risk register is changing to the extent where insurability is being diminished. Let’s use the captive, in conjunction with insurers, as the incubator to prove the underwriting concept. We can work with insurers to create the market.”

Airmic’s CEO Julia Graham, moderating a closing on the future of captive insurance, agreed that captives were playing an expanded role, both as a result of the hard market and efforts to support their owners ESG programmes.

Meanwhile, Elke Vagenende, global head of multinational at AIG, said that more captives were taking on third-party risks, such as warranty products for customers.

“The word that we’ve heard a lot today is diversification of risk,” she said. “Most captives have a rule or position where they only want to insure their own parent or subsidiary risks. However, there is a growing proportion of captive owners who take third-party risks.”