CIMA: Cayman survived COVID-19

The Cayman Islands insurance industry shows no signs of being hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic or its aftermath, delegates at the Cayman Captive Forum 2022 heard.

George Kamau, regulator and deputy head of the Insurance Supervision Division at the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) said that to date in 2022, there were 668 insurance entities on Cayman,which was a slight increase on the 2021 figure of 662. In 2020, the year that COVID-19 hit, there were 652 and in 2019 there were 655.

Kamau said that there had been no significant negative impact from COVID-19, with the Cayman insurance industry being made up of 30% commercial business and 70% self insurance.

According to CIMA figures there have been 28 new licences so far in 2022, compared to 37 in 2021, 36 in 2020 and 33 in 2019.

CIMA has identified a number of trends in the market, such as the increasing use of existing captives and an increase in insurtech formations and large reinsurance formations in Cayman.

Reinsurance is seen as the next big frontier for Cayman and this trend is expected to continue, CIMA said.

Kamau added that CIMA has been very active in a number of regulatory bodies, and has signed memorandums of understanding (MOU) with regulatory bodies like NAIC and multiple US states. CIMA executed 68 MOUs with other regulatory bodies globally.

CIMA has a positive outlook going forward, with new formations, increased interest by large players and inward re-domiciliation from other jurisdictions. Re-domiciliation enables a foreign-incorporated company to change its place of incorporation to Cayman while maintaining its legal identity as a corporate body.