BMA: 2011 Insurance Incorporations
The Bermuda Monetary Authority [BMA] today [Jan. 13] reported 53 new insurance companies registered in Bermuda in 2011.
The 2011 new insurer registrations were up 50 percent from 2010, when Bermuda saw 36 new registrations, the Hamilton, Bermuda-based regulatory body said in a statement.
“These results were achieved as Bermuda continues with its progressive regulatory agenda and within the context of very challenging global market conditions in the insurance sector,” said Shelby Weldon, director of insurance, licensing and authorisation for the BMA, in the statement.
“The 2011 increase included the majority of classes in the Bermuda market, ranging from captives and special purpose insurers to insurers in the commercial sector,” Mr. Weldon said.
Special Purpose Insurers had the greatest sector growth among the insurance companies, with 23 new registrations in 2011 compared with eight in 2010, the BMA said.
SPIs are insurance entities that conduct special-purpose business for a specific period of time.
Most of the new SPIs were formed in response to the record-osetting level of global catastrophes experienced during the first half of 2011.
This appears to be very positive news. However, can anyone tell me how many of these companies are based on-island? How many jobs did they create? That important news was left out of this article.
Thanks to C Dunleavy, here is the true picture:
The truth is that 2011 was the 4th worst year in history for incorporations, and they were up 50% over 2010 which was the worst year ever for incorporations. The 10 year average for incorporations is 70, the 20 year is 76, in 2001 we had 108, 2007 there were 71. The PLP are doing a victory lap for the 4th worst year ever? And these are legal entities for specific transactions other than 2. They are not companies as we need them. The PLP are taking a terrible number and pretending it is great because last year was so bad. These will not provide any jobs at all. They will keep a lawyer and an accountant busy, but they will not create one job.
@RobbieM says,
Spot on RobbieM most will only be ‘Shingles’ on a law firms Wall anyway so they wont employ many if any of the hundreds of Bermudians who are unemployed in those fields. Many of them are unemployed due to the PLP Govt.s poor policies and anti business rhetoric these last 13 years.
These articles are misleading and the BMA and Ministry of Finance/Business Development must tell the public the truth, these new companies especially the Special Purpose Insurers (SPIs) do not create any new jobs all the fees from startup and admin go to law and accounting firms, underwriting and risk analysis is all outsourced to existing insurance companies
its time to stop misleading the public and sugar coating our disastrous economic situation