Governor: Bermuda’s Business Is Real Business
“Bermuda’s business is real businesses, above all very real insurance and reinsurance business. It doesn’t need to be involved in dodgier stuff – and sensibly isn’t,” said Governor George Fergusson at the recently held Bermuda Insurance Market Conference.
“It is good to see this gathering today,” said the Governor. “Besides the important and relevant ideas, analyses and experiences being exchanged, which is the real point of this event, it is also a reaffirmation of what Bermuda’s main financial services are about: the provision of high quality, good value, well regulated, well-regarded insurance and reinsurance services to the wider world.
“This is not news to anyone in this room. But some of the headlines around the world in recent weeks will, regrettably, have been taken at face value and have presented a peculiarly wrong picture.
“Some which have achieved prominence have suggested that Bermuda makes its money by not charging corporation tax from firms whose revenue raising activities are elsewhere and who should be paying their taxes elsewhere.
“As most of you will know, company registrations are not a significant element in Bermuda’s business scene. Secondly, if you can raise revenue by not charging a tax, you have found an El Dorado which I would suspect other national Treasurers would be interested in too.
“Similarly, on issues like hidden stashes of cash from overseas, it is actually difficult – more difficult than in most places – to open a bank account here if you don’t live here.
“And Bermuda has required full details of ownership of registered companies since the 1940s to be made available to regulators and law enforcement. This is a position that is only now being demanded as a requirement around all developed countries.
The Governor continued, “This conference is a useful reminder to the world that Bermuda’s business is real businesses, above all very real insurance and reinsurance business. It doesn’t need to be involved in dodgier stuff – and sensibly isn’t. This has been obvious to people in Bermuda and doing business with Bermuda.
“But we may all – and some here may be able to contribute in this – have to be rather more active in putting out the story of Bermuda’s strengths in this respect, in a cynical and suspicious world.”
The Governor full speech follows below:
Ministers, Consul General Settje, Visiting representatives from Florida, Distinguished visitors and participants:
I am honoured and somewhat awed to find myself addressing this assembly. My involvement in the insurance industry has been much greater this past year than in my previous life. This reflects both my arrival in this world centre of insurance and reinsurance and my submission of two insurance claims which, though significant to me, did not really amount to catastrophe level. But I am a beginner in the field.
I take the opportunity, first, to add to the warm words of welcome which you heard yesterday from the Premier. Most of you will be familiar with Bermuda and need little introduction to it. For those of you who may be here for the first time, I bid a particular welcome. I hope you have had – or will have the time to see something of this beautiful island full of surprises. If you have I am confident that you will have fallen in love with it like I did, very quickly. And it is not just a fascinating and enjoyable place. As the Premier said yesterday, it is an increasingly welcoming place to do business.
It is good to see this gathering today. Besides the important and relevant ideas, analyses and experiences being exchanged, which is the real point of this event, it is also a reaffirmation of what Bermuda’s main financial services are about: the provision of high quality, good value, well regulated, well-regarded insurance and reinsurance services to the wider world.
This is not news to anyone in this room. But some of the headlines around the world in recent weeks will, regrettably, have been taken at face value and have presented a peculiarly wrong picture. Some which have achieved prominence have suggested that Bermuda makes its money by not charging corporation tax from firms whose revenue raising activities are elsewhere and who should be paying their taxes elsewhere. As most of you will know, company registrations are not a significant element in Bermuda’s business scene. Secondly, if you can raise revenue by notcharging a tax, you have found an El Dorado which I would suspect other national Treasurers would be interested in too.
Similarly, on issues like hidden stashes of cash from overseas, it is actually difficult – more difficult than in most places – to open a bank account here if you don’t live here. And Bermuda has required full details of ownership of registered companies since the 1940s to be made available to regulators and law enforcement. This is a position that is only now being demanded as a requirement around all developed countries.
In a speech at to Heads of State, NGOs and others just before the recent G8 conference, David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, commended the leadership shown by the British Overseas Territories, including Bermuda, in the area of transparency. It is clear that Bermuda is not a tax haven. As international standards of financial transparency and tax probity have risen sharply in the last few years, Bermuda has been well placed to stay in the front echelon of the “clean” economies.
Bermuda, like other countries within the OECD framework, has had to be and will continue to have to be nimble in bringing in measures to stay at the front. But Bermuda is doing this from a position of strength. Bermuda has had a proud record of benefitting from a reputation for probity: amongst its regulators, its police, its courts – and not least among its business community.
This conference is a useful reminder to the world that Bermuda’s business is real businesses, above all very real insurance and reinsurance business. It doesn’t need to be involved in dodgier stuff – and sensibly isn’t. This has been obvious to people in Bermuda and doing business with Bermuda. But we may all – and some here may be able to contribute in this – have to be rather more active in putting out the story of Bermuda’s strengths in this respect, in a cynical and suspicious world.
I wish you a productive second day of conferring.
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Thank you Governor, the business of Bermuda is very real and is the framework for our very existence as a country, something that seems to have escaped your notice is that crime in Bermuda is also very real and threatens to undermine the contributions made by business, perhaps its time for major changes within the BPS as the current management is doing a dismal job as in evidence by the quantity of murders, shootings and armed robberies over the last 9 years or so, all we ever get is lip service from the BPS on how things are improving and clearly they are not. We need to change the book smart but street stupid individuals that are allowing this to continue
I guess Google didn’t get the memo.
You beat me to it.
What an opening statement.