Irish SME Association considers launching group captives

The Irish SME Association (ISME) is considering developing specialist group captives to tackle the rising cost, and declining availability, of insurance among its members.

ISME said it will conduct a survey for interested parties. If the feedback is favourable it could form group captives, potentially in multiple sectors, it added. In that case, ISME will issue a formal request for proposals to the brokerage community in the first quarter next year.

“Formation of captives will not resolve the issue of high insurance costs,” warned ISME. “ISME members who are already participants in captive funds still pay more for their insurance in Ireland than they do abroad.”

However, it said if there were sufficient number of well-managed members in transparent insurance pools, captives might reduce underwriting margins and costs, and increase the bargaining power of group captive members. This could reduce pricing volatility over time, ISME said.