BILTIR
PLAYING TO OUR STRENGTHS
Natasha Scotland Courcy, senior vice president, general counsel and chief operating officer of Athene Life Re, and vice chair of Bermuda International Long Term Insurers and Reinsurers, explains why Bermuda is a great place to do business.
“Bermuda’s mature regulatory environment is a key driver for the presence of international business.”
Natasha Scotland Courcy, BILTIR
Bermuda may be a small island, with an area of 56 square kilometres and a population of around 63,000, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the top three premier insurance jurisdictions in the world.
Today, nearly every Fortune 500 company has links to Bermuda, and international business is a stable and growing pillar of its economy.
The size of Bermuda works to its advantage as the regulator understands the market and its constituents. There are other factors that make Bermuda attractive to international business: it has a stable government and is near the US; the Island’s natural beauty and the friendliness of its people add to its appeal.
Why Bermuda?
In developing its regulatory framework over the years, the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) has built a robust regime that is in line with international regulatory standards requiring strong risk management and asset liability management from its registrants.
Bermuda’s mature regulatory environment is a key driver for the presence of international business. Organisations choose Bermuda not only because of its strong risk-based regulations and the protection they afford the ultimate policyholder, but also because of the BMA’s expertise, pragmatism and commitment to protecting and enhancing Bermuda’s reputation as a leading international financial centre.
The Bermuda market’s high concentration of reinsurers means that the BMA has considerable reinsurance expertise and understands the concerns and nuances specific to reinsurance transactions. The BMA is available to discuss issues such as regulatory approvals for large transactions and customised approaches for non-standard products or transactions. The BMA will provide a decision in a matter of weeks, far more quickly than some other regulators.
The jurisdiction has an efficient process to establish and license a new company—you deal with a single regulator to begin writing business as opposed to, say, 50 US state regulators.
“Bermuda is conducive to startups with its efficient licensing process and solid infrastructure.”
A compelling jurisdiction
Bermuda is one of a few jurisdictions that has obtained Qualified Jurisdiction and Reciprocal Jurisdiction status from the US National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). These designations allow Bermuda licensed reinsurers to write cross-border US business with reduced or zero collateral requirements within many US states, putting them on a level playing field with US competitors in terms of the US marketplace.
Bermuda has also been deemed Solvency II equivalent on all three pillars by the EU. Bermuda reinsurers are treated the same as an EU reinsurer in the European marketplace. Moreover, the BMA is recognised as a supervisor of the same standing as EU-based supervisors.
These factors strongly enhance the attractiveness and the reputation of Bermuda as a competitive, leading global re/insurance jurisdiction.
There’s more: Bermuda has strong infrastructure advantages with a well-established support network that takes care of accounting, audit, actuarial, banking, legal advice, insurance advisors, IT, and insurance management.
An environment for growth
The robust relationship between the BMA and international business has helped propel Bermuda to the forefront of the financial sector. Nowhere is this more evident than in the long-term insurance and reinsurance sector, which continues to grow.
Bermuda is conducive to startups with its efficient licensing process and solid infrastructure, with 29 startups springing up in the last three years.
Key drivers for growth include increased demand worldwide for insurance products due to an aging population and retirement funding gap, as well as low interest rates. Due to declining interest rates since the early 1980s, and compressed spreads on legacy blocks of business that typically have higher crediting rates, firms are looking for solutions to these issues.
Bermuda’s regulatory and innovative business environment are often an important part of the solution.
“BILTIR fosters talent on the Island through various scholarships, mentoring and apprenticeship programmes.”
Investing in Bermuda’s people
Organisations such as Bermuda International Long Term Insurers and Reinsurers (BILTIR), through its 63 members and the association itself, are investing in the Island’s future by developing talent, using the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and by being good corporate citizens.
Developing talent with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion is critical to a company’s bottom line as well as its reputation in the market and in terms of attracting future talent. Today more than ever, employees want to work in a culture where they feel included, and younger people in particular want to work for an inclusive and diverse organisation.
The unintended consequences of unconscious bias and a lack of diversity can have direct and profound consequences for re/insurers—and not only in terms of recruitment and talent development. I believe diversity, equity and inclusion will mean the difference between simply surviving and thriving for many organisations in today’s changing world.
Providing career opportunities for local school students in the insurance sector is paramount for Bermuda’s economic development. BILTIR has run a summer internship programme, fostering job opportunities for 47 Bermudian university students over the past 4 years. Many of the interns have now graduated and entered the reinsurance workforce.
BILTIR fosters talent on the Island through various scholarships, mentoring and apprenticeship programmes, as well as charitable giving to educational institutions that will ultimately benefit Bermuda’s economy, strengthen its workforce, and provide job opportunities for Bermudians.
The industry has spent a lot of time and resources investing in Bermuda’s future workforce. We’ve done this through numerous initiatives, including BILTIR’s annual $30,000 scholarship award; the creation of a career development centre at the Bermuda College, which was a collaboration between Athene Life Re, Athora Holding, Aspen Insurance Holdings and Catalina Holdings (Bermuda); and tutoring programmes at CedarBridge Academy and with Planet Math.
These all provide wonderful experiences and learning opportunities that will equip students for long and meaningful careers—careers we hope they will pursue here in Bermuda.
As part of our 10th anniversary celebrations this year, BILTIR plans to distribute copies of an educational book, “The Magic School Bus Takes a Risk: A Book about Probability”, to the Island’s P4 students. This book was custom-designed in collaboration with the American Academy of Actuaries to introduce the concept of probability and statistics to schoolchildren.
BILTIR actively contributes to the Island’s economy, with more than 600 Bermuda-based staff, 60 percent of whom are Bermudian or have a Bermudian spouse, and our membership contributes $500 million a year to Bermuda’s economy.
Part of the community
Corporate social responsibility and community engagement may be buzzwords elsewhere but in Bermuda, the re/insurance community has always been an active and generous partner to the Island’s charities and community projects. As one of the Island’s biggest employers, the industry has a keen sense of its responsibility to the community in which it operates.
In November 2020, BILTIR reported that its members had supported more than 50 charitable initiatives over the last year. More than $4 million had been donated to deserving projects across the community during the past year by BILTIR member companies.
BILTIR is committed to Bermuda’s environmental and sustainability efforts and has adopted a section of the Bermuda Railway Trail National Park, Bermuda’s largest park, where staff from BILTIR’s member companies will come together throughout each year to maintain the grounds.
The way we have collaborated to support the people and the community in which we live and operate is a testament to this jurisdiction and why Bermuda is one of the best places in the world to live and do business.
For more information on BILTIR, visit: biltir.bm
Image courtesy of Shutterstock / ARENA Creative
