Captives drive Labuan IBFC premium growth in 2020

The Labuan International Business and Financial Centre (Labuan IBFC) reported healthy growth in premiums for its insurance sector, driven largely by captives as businesses in Asia become increasingly familiar with the advantages of self insurance solutions.

Labuan IBFC saw its captive insurance community increase their premiums to $497.5 million in 2020, an increase of 8.7 percent.

Overall, Labuan’s insurance sector remained resilient, Labuan IBFC said, driven mainly by captive and reinsurance business, with total premiums underwritten increasing by 6.7 percent to $1.6 billion.

Labuan IBFC saw the total number of digital financial services (DFS) institutions double in 2020, with 30 new DFS licences granted. The activities of these institutions also became more sophisticated, Labuan IBFC said, expanding from simple digital trading platforms for fiat or digital currencies, to more complex digital banking and digital assets.

In light of this growth Labuan emphasised the importance of cyber resilience, with the Labuan Financial Services Authority set to issue digital governance regulations to ensure market stability.