North Carolina’s number of captives doubles in third full year of operation

The number of licenced captives in North Carolina more than doubled and the number of cell or series approved grew by more than 50 percent, as of January 23, 2017.

Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey attributes this growth to both new captive insurer formations and captive insurer redomestications from other US and off-shore captive insurer jurisdictions.

The growth of small captive insurers continues to be strong, but North Carolina is also experiencing growth in larger captive insurers and risk retention groups.

"North Carolina's captive insurance programme continues to experience growth in the number of captive insurers forming and redomesticating to our state," Causey said in a statement.

"North Carolina continues to prove to be a great place for captive insurers and I look forward to what is in store for 2017."

Over 550 risk bearing captive insurance entities are under the regulation of the North Carolina Department of Insurance (NCDOI), including 190 captive insurers that are licensed or provisionally licensed and 363 cells or series that are approved or provisionally approved.

The 190 standalone captive insurers is comprised of 150 pure captive insurers, 23 protected cell captive insurers, 5 risk retention groups and 12 special purpose captive insurers.

The State became a jurisdiction for the formation and operation of captive insurers in October of 2013

The captive insurance industry has since favourably impacted North Carolina's economy by creating jobs and generating premium tax revenue and business revenue, according to Causey.

The NCDOI credits the success of North Carolina captive insurance programme to a number of factors, including the North Carolina Captive Insurance Act and the NCDOI's prudent yet pro-business approach to regulation; the support of and participation by captive insurer owners, captive managers and other captive insurance service providers; the contributions of the North Carolina Captive Insurance Association; and the support of the leadership of the State of North Carolina.

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