London event highlights Guernsey’s ILS prowess

Guernsey’s underlined its expertise in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) arena at a thought leadership event in London last Wednesday, March 18.

Hosted by Guernsey Finance, ‘ILS Insight London’ attracted more than 140 delegates and featured two panel sessions with ILS experts from Guernsey, the UK and mainland Europe sharing their expertise and insights into this developing asset class.

Dominic Wheatley, chief executive of Guernsey Finance – the promotional agency for the Island’s finance industry, said the event was particularly timely as it coincided with the announcement by George Osborne, the UK Chancellor, that the UK was committed to developing its own ILS regime.

“I believe the event demonstrated how Guernsey has established itself as a major destination for ILS business and that what sets it apart from other jurisdictions is its ability to innovate and to develop the technology that underpins the sector, rather than simply going after a large volume of transactions.

“Guernsey can boast a diverse range of transactions and risks across its ILS sector, including the reinsurance of satellites, lottery risk, football clubs and players and marine reinsurance. The Island’s focus does not just revolve around traditional catastrophe risks,” said Wheatley.

“The fact that the UK has expressed an interest in ILS shows just how attractive the market is and we will watch those developments closely.”

Figures to the end of 2014 show that the Guernsey regulator licensed 85 new international insurance entities during last year, meaning there was a total of 797 international insurance entities domiciled in the Island at the end of 2014. Further data showed that ILS was responsible for 45 percent of new business last year.