Editor’s note
Coming out of the deep freeze
Spring is the season of rebirth and renewal. It is a time for new flowers to emerge following the frosty winter months—if not in Bermuda itself, then certainly in many of the places with which it does much of its business.
In recent months it has sometimes felt as though we have been stuck in a winter that would never end. The emergence of COVID-19 in early 2020 sent the global economy into a deep freeze that has lasted for more than a year. Now, with vaccines approved and being rolled out around the world, there are signs that this long COVID winter is finally drawing to a close, with a period of rebirth and renewal, hopefully, soon to follow.
Regular visitors to Bermuda who have been unable to travel for many months are finally in a position to start thinking about their next visit. Residents of Bermuda, who couldn’t travel abroad to visit family or attend conferences, can once again think about getting on a plane.
While there is still much debate about what the “new normal” will look like following the end of the COVID-19 lockdowns, the world is certainly close to a resumption of the travel and commerce that has been impossible for much of 2020 and early 2021.
Those employed in the re/insurance industry, in Bermuda and elsewhere, will welcome the fact as much as anyone. Some face-to-face time with old friends and colleagues will make a nice change from the endless Zoom calls to which they have had to become accustomed.
The last 12 months have been desperately challenging for so many businesses, with many collapsing, and others surviving only because of generous government support. The global retail, tourism and hospitality industries, in particular, have been pulverised by lockdowns. The re/insurance industry, by contrast, has acquitted itself admirably throughout the COVID-19 crisis, providing risk management services to its clients without interruption.
The contrast is particularly stark in Bermuda, where the moribund tourism industry sits next to a re/insurance sector that looks, if anything, livelier than ever, as evidenced by the birth of a swathe of new carriers, some of which are profiled in this issue, with more detailed coverage available here.
Bermuda:Re+ILS’s Spring 2021 issue is notable for being the first to include our new life re/insurance section. There have been life companies in Bermuda for years, but their significance to the broader Bermudian economy has traditionally been relatively small when set against the larger non-life re/insurance community.
That has been gradually changing, to the point where it now seems appropriate for a magazine dedicated to Bermuda’s re/insurance community to offer detailed coverage of this vibrant and fascinating sector.
Our inaugural life section includes an interview with BILTIR’s chair, Sylvia Oliveira, and with the Bermuda Monetary Authority, among others.
We hope you enjoy the issue.
Solomon Teague, editor
Wave image: Bermuda Tourism Board
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