Burrows: Greg talked about ILS, capital raising and new startups—and we are excited about them coming to the Island. We are also aware that the government is working on some new legislation that is going to have an impact on high net worths and family offices. It is likely that this will go through shortly, so people who are investing can also start thinking about coming here.

Others are using the domicile to move assets and create new opportunities for themselves. Once people are on the Island, they tend to wonder why they haven’t been here before. They want to know how they can set up, live, work and enjoy themselves here with everything that is on offer.

Growth is happening in every line of business—the only challenge we face is how to make it even easier for people to come to the Island in the current circumstances. All the stakeholders I have been talking to recently are seeing growth in their businesses: new opportunities are arising, and referrals are coming to the Island in greater numbers.

We must accommodate growth, and we are doing that, but there are some infrastructure issues that we have to address and modernise if we are to take full advantage of the opportunities available—some of them are legislative, some relate to technology.

We are also seeing growth in the ESG space. People are looking at that side of things, and we need to make sure that we are sending the right messages to the global community about where we stand as a country and what we have to offer as it relates to sustainability and sustainable investing.

In short, I have a positive view on growth and how we can continue to facilitate and accommodate that growth.

Burrows: If the government doesn’t want to increase taxes, there needs to be more people on the Island. The government of course needs to consider the cost of more immigration and the cost of not doing it.

Clearly it is not sustainable to continue spending money without any source of revenue coming in. If you are not going to tax the Island’s residents, that means attracting and welcoming in more people from elsewhere.

MacIntyre: Bermuda needs the kind of shot in the arm it had with the America’s Cup in 2017, but it also needs companies to drive the headcount, the use of services, restaurants and so on. At the moment, we are benefiting because people can be outdoors and enjoy the fresh air—it’s the health connection.

Once a vaccine is available and people feel that they can return to their homes, interest in coming to Bermuda may wane. We need to figure out a way of ensuring that Bermuda is a permanent draw for visitors.

Cooper: The government has been particularly good at short-term decision-making over the past year, but how do we develop on these advantages and make the positive impacts systemic?

How does the government encourage businesses to come to the Island and stay for the long term?

Wojciechowski: They say you should never waste a good catastrophe, whether it is a global financial crisis or a pandemic. I am encouraged by the tone and the tenor coming out of government in terms of immigration reform.

It is a highly emotive subject, and something that has always been a speed bump for this country. However, the government understands the revenue side of the balance sheet and there being limited ways of bringing additional money into this country.

We are relying on international business and we can promote other innovative ideas, but sustainability comes down to the number of people who are generating revenue for the government.

<< The US federal reserve has said it is going to start a conversation about what climate means in terms of systemic risk. Those are opportunities for the Bermuda market because our legacy work of managing natural catastrophe risk in many ways positions Bermuda as a leader in managing climate risk.

Second, there is cyber risk. The book has not yet been written on cyber risk management and regulation, but COVID-19 has taught us there is more risk globally than we first imagined.

The regulations have not been documented and the aggregation methodology of risk has not been calculated. It is a great opportunity for companies who are doing these things correctly.

The third issue is capturing legacy run-off business, which is the hottest new thing in insurance and reinsurance right now. It’s a capital management tool that allows existing companies to shed books of business.

Companies and startups using these tools are very sophisticated—they are well capitalised and it is going to be a strong area for Bermuda. Again, it is a related pillar, not a new pillar.

Wojciechowski: The other issue of focus for me is environment, society and corporate governance (ESG) factors. This is going to be a big thing over the next five to 10 years and we are focused on it at the BSX. With some ILS structures having demonstrated ESG-compliant features as securities, we can begin to unlock a new global demographic of investors with a focus on sustainability and driving a new source of capital into an already interesting and evolving market.

The history and story of Bermuda is strong and compelling, we just need to articulate it in the right way.

Fagundo: Focusing on the positive side, we have a beautiful product—and we can provide value. As the government moves forward, it is vital to bear in mind the role that it plays. There have been discussions about a more robust unemployment system and much has been made of downsizing government.

In fact, those two things go hand in hand, and you can finance a more robust social safety net that works for everybody—provided its development runs in tandem with rationalising the civil service and focusing on process improvements.

In turn, that should create a better service to the business community by making all interactions with government predictable and therefore faster.

Burrows: Infrastructure is part of the problem as well. We need to enhance our existing platform for doing business and move towards something that is technology-based. If we can get the infrastructure and the connectivity right, that would be important.

The Bermuda story is fantastic, but I think future growth is dependent on changes to the infrastructure or the modernisation of that infrastructure.

<< It will need to take risks and put in place policies that are friendly towards those who are already living here, but also friendly to those who would like to come here and contribute to our community.

That is going to be important for the next 18 months or so. From my perspective, we are still seeing a lot of incorporations and structures being put in place (some of them relating to ILS). There is also optimism because companies have seen that COVID-19 is not necessarily a death knell to their businesses.

They have been able to move to online operations where necessary and have continued to service their customers. People are continuing to spend but they are simply changing their habits to suit the current climate.

If you look at the markets, most of the stocks that are performing well have some component involving people doing stuff from their homes. Or they are pharmaceutical stocks and things of that nature.

I think that optimism trickles down to our business and what we are doing too. It is a question of harnessing that energy and optimism so that we can plan.

That is going to be key for us as a jurisdiction, both in government and in the private sector—each acknowledging the role that the other has to play.

<< Government has to be mindful of the circumstances that create a conducive environment for all business to flourish, and that has to be balanced against the community’s desires and wishes—and in a smaller country, those desires and wishes become amplified and that translates into votes.

As I have said before, never waste a good catastrophe. It gets people focused on how to create innovative new solutions.

Bermuda provides a large amount of support globally to countries in their times of need, and it has not stalled in terms of solutions for development and innovation. Whether it is the captive insurance market, prominence in P&C or ILS, there is no doubt in my mind that there are enormous opportunities ahead.

ILS is an indication of what’s to come when you start to see securitisation and transferring of risk. The global capital markets become highly interested in consuming that risk and the global insurance market can utilise this capital to narrow the global protection gap.

If we look at this through the domestic lens, we will always have challenges—every country does.

However, one of the things that gives us a tremendous tailwind is that we have decades of experience in specific and niche areas. That experience has given us the expertise and credibility to operate on a global scale—so our challenge is to leverage those attributes, drive innovation forward and keep Bermuda relevant in a changing world.