Gibraltar seeking new captive position: from: Airmic Correspondent Richard Cutcher
Nigel Feetham MP, Gibraltar’s new Minister for Justice, Trade and Industry, has invited local stakeholders to join a Government Working Group to further develop his plans for a new “dual captive” regime in the jurisdiction.
One of Feetham’s election promises before he came to office in October was to reinvigorate the country’s captive offering after Brexit removed the key benefit of being able to write direct across both the United Kingdom and Europe.
His plans for a dual captive regime, for which new legislation is drafted, would allow new captive entities to be formed outside of the Gibraltar Authorisation Regime (The GAR), which allows financial services firms access to the UK market.
Captives would lose direct UK market access, but would be regulated more proportionally, outside of Solvency II, potentially making it more attractive for international companies to consider the domicile.
Speaking at the InsurConnect Gibraltar conference on 25 January Mike Ellis, managing director at Artex, said: “We need to have a proposition that is attractive and competitive in a global marketplace, so it stands up against Guernsey, Malta, Switzerland, France. The UK now is exploring captives, so we need to have a differentiation that is compelling.”
As previously reported in Airmic News, the UK government is planning a public consultation on introducing a captive insurance regime at home with Airmic CEO Julia Graham, Captive Ambassador Richard Cutcher and several Airmic members involved in ongoing discussions between local industry, London Market Group, the Treasury and Prudential Regulation Authority.
Feetham believes a proposed UK captive proposition and Gibraltar dual captive regime need not be competitors, but could complement each other.
“Whilst it will initially sit outside the common market (GAR) arrangements with the UK, I believe it could in future be possible, through this regime, to deliver on a common objective,” he said.
“Working closely with the UK government and its industry, within GAR, such that Gibraltar can facilitate the regulatory regime and the UK the expertise and professional infrastructure, both sides contributing what the other can offer, making it a successful Gibraltar-UK partnership.”