Barbados continues to grow its captives industry

Barbados is seeing continued growth in its captive insurance industry, according to the country’s newly-appointed Financial Services Commission chief executive officer.

Despite a slowdown on the 34 new captives in 2021, there were still 10 in 2022, according to Warrick Ward, who said he was confident 2023 would see more. “The bulk of the captive insurance business continues to originate from Canada, which accounts for 51 per cent of the registrants, followed by the US, which accounts for about 25 per cent,” Ward told the audience at the launch ceremony for the third annual Barbados Risk and Insurance Management (BRIM) conference, due to take place on March 23 and 24 at the Hilton Barbados Resort.

According to reports, Ward revealed that as of December 2022, the FSC had 187 class-one companies underwriting related foreign business. At the same date, it had 98 class-two licensees underwriting third-party risk.

“The sector is one that employs a lot of our highly-skilled members of the public and so we want to make sure this sort of trend continues where we are able to further develop the market,” he said.

The chairman of the BIBA (Barbados International Business Association) Insurance Committee, Ricardo Knight, said the upcoming conference would highlight Barbados’s position as an ideal jurisdiction for international firms.

“We are highly ranked as an international insurance centre. I think it is something that Barbados is proven to do well. We have been doing it for almost 40 years,” he said.