Captive formation picks up in Guernsey

Guernsey licensed seven new captives in 2020 and expects to see a significant rise in 2021 following adoption of a new fast-track pre-authorisation licensing scheme at the end of last year.  

The jurisdiction added three new captives, four new captive cells, and two special purpose vehicles in 2020, a year where interest in captive formations was so strong at one point the number of inquires was a challenge for the industry to handle.  

2021 has already seen a new captive company, protected cell company and individual cell formations.  

“New business has started to flow, which is excellent news, and I expect that we will see 2021 and 2022 proving to be good years for new formations and licensees,” said Mike Johns, chairman of the Guernsey International Insurance Association (GIIA). 

The fast-track pilot, due to run to the end of 2021, was introduced to accelerate the licence application process to deal with the surge in interest. 

Johns said Guernsey was also seeing greater use of existing captives as owners looked to introduce new lines of business into their captive structures to counter hard market conditions.  

Nearly all regions reported double-digit price increases in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to Marsh, led by the UK in Europe, where average rates on line increased by 44%.