Guernsey licensed 46 international insurance companies to operate on the island in 2013's first half. These include limited insurance companies, protected cell captives and incorporated cells.
There are now 766 insurance companies on Guernsey, the world's fourth-largest captive insurance domicile. These companies wrote about $7.1 billion in gross premiums last year.
Paul Sykes, Managing Director of Aon in Guernsey and the current Chairman of the Guernsey International Insurance Association (GIIA), said that the island has seen "an uptick in insurance linked securities (ILS) cells being launched," which he identifies as the driving force behind Guernsey's recent increase in established cells.
According to the Guernsey International Finance Center, since December 2012 the domicile added three limited companies, two protected cell companies (PCC), 37 PCC cells and four incorporated cell companies (ICC). 17 companies also shuttered in that time period.
"Guernsey's experience and expertise in establishing the cell company structures means it is ideally positioned to service this emerging market and in doing so, helps diversify the Island's business base which has been predominantly European and in particular, the UK," states Nick Wild, executive chairman of global (ex-Americas) for JLT Insurance Management in Guernsey, which in 2013 helped set up the first ICC in Guernsey with an Asian parent.
"The ICC allows the group business risks to be under one umbrella, but the separate assets and liabilities to be managed through individual cells which can become their own profit centers," Wild says, noting that the domicile is now attractive to Asian clients as their enterprises are often owned by one family, with individual members responsible for different parts of the business.
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