Registrations of new insurance and reinsurance entities in Bermuda continued at a rapid pace in July, with Special Purpose Insurers (SPI) again leading the way. There were 13 new re/insurer registrations in the Bermuda market during July, according to the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), with 7 being SPI’s.
Year to date Bermuda has now seen 47 new insurer registrations by the end of July, up by 81% from the 26 insurers registered in the first seven months of 2012. New entrants in July spanned the entire range of insurance classes available in the Bermuda market. Over half of the registrations in 2013 are SPI’s, 27 in total, and of those 27 SPI’s just over half, 14, have been used to issue catastrophe bonds.
Shelby Weldon, Director, Licensing and Authorisations at the BMA said; “Registrations in July were predominantly Special Purpose Insurers (SPIs) – we registered seven SPIs with projected premiums in the first year of operations of over $151 million.”
The 7 new SPI’s are projected between them to underwrite over $1.7 billion over the next five years, across a range of re/insurance business from property catastrophe reinsurance, to life and annuity, as well as (of course) catastrophe bonds.
A number of new captive insurance companies were also registered in July, as these continue to see favour as a vehicle for risk transfer across multiple lines of business. Bermuda has managed to hold onto the captives its registered over the last few years, with registration numbers remaining steady.
Weldon commented; “New captives continue to enter Bermuda. In addition, suggestions of a growing trend of captives redomiciling back onshore have not been the experience of the Bermuda market. In fact, during the first seven months of 2013, no Bermuda captives have redomiciled to other jurisdictions, either onshore or offshore. Overall, during the past three years, a total of 12 captives have moved to another location.”
The 7 SPI’s registered in July were (with links to more detail where we have it):
- Tradewynd Re Ltd. (AIG’s catastrophe bond vehicle)
- Peregrine Reinsurance Ltd (A 100% owned subsidiary of Aspen Insurance Holdings)
- SH Hamilton Harbor SPI II Ltd.
- MetroCat Re Ltd. (The MTA’s storm surge cat bond vehicle)
- Sullivan Re Ltd. (New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Group cat bond vehicle)
- Northshore Re Limited (AXIS Capital’s cat bond vehicle)
- New Point Re VI Limited (A new edition of Alterra, now Markel’s, retro sidecar)
The rest of the SPI’s registered in 2013 are listed below and where possible we’ve linked to more details from our catastrophe bond Deal Directory or from our previous stories. 14 of the 27 SPI’s established in the first-half of the year are known catastrophe bond issuance vehicles which between them have issued $2.699 billion of risk capital this year.
View all of our Artemis Live video interviews and subscribe to our podcast.
All of our Artemis Live insurance-linked securities (ILS), catastrophe bonds and reinsurance video content and video interviews can be accessed online.
Our Artemis Live podcast can be subscribed to using the typical podcast services providers, including Apple, Google, Spotify and more.
- Skyline Re Ltd.
- Bosphorus 1 Re Ltd.
- Lorenz Re Ltd.
- Accordian Reinsurance II Limited
- Mona Lisa Re Ltd.
- Collateralized Re (L) Ltd.
- Merna Re IV Ltd.
- Tar Heel Re Ltd.
- Altair Re Ltd.
- Kiskadee Re Ltd.
- Sanders Re Ltd.
- Vector Reinsurance Ltd.
- Sunshine Re Ltd.
- Armor Re Ltd.
- Phoenix CRetro Reinsurance Company Ltd.
- Blizzard Re Ltd.
- Link Specialty Re Ltd.
- Queen Street VIII Re Ltd.
- Tramline Re II Ltd.
- Kinesis Reinsurance I Ltd.
