The U.K.’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in September 2026 published coordinated consultation papers proposing a bespoke regulatory regime for captive insurers, aiming to build a domestic market that currently does not exist. U.K. groups typically establish captives in Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Ireland, Luxembourg or Bermuda; the consultation closes October 14, 2026, with implementation targeted for mid-2027. The initial phase covers single-parent captives

The rapid expansion of data centers could open a significant new growth avenue for the captive insurance market, according to Fitch Ratings. Speaking in September 2026 at the Rendez-Vous de Septembre reinsurance conference in Monte Carlo, Fitch’s head of EMEA reinsurance ratings, Manuel Arrivé, said data centers represent a major opportunity for the broader re/insurance sector. But he cautioned that the scale and complexity of these exposures mean capacity

Former Marsh Captive Solutions president Ellen Charnley and ex-WTW CEO John Haley in September 2026 joined the board of Risk & Regulatory Consulting (RRC) following a new investment from Altaline Capital Management. RRC has supported US state insurance departments for nearly 40 years, employing close to 160 professionals who serve 44 states and jurisdictions. Its services cover financial and IT examinations, market conduct reviews, actuarial support, insolvency and receivership

Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) in August 2026 launched a Bermuda-domiciled captive, AFC Captive Insurance Company, to strengthen risk management and support its infrastructure financing activities across the continent. Backed by up to $30 million in equity capital, AFC Captive will initially insure loans AFC extends to its counterparties, with the goal of reducing reliance on external commercial insurance markets over time. Wola Asase, AFC’s deputy director and head of

The adoption of AI in captive operations is a rapidly evolving topic, with AI tools advancing at a rapid pace: a major development every six months, while adoption rates vary greatly not only from one industry to another, but also between competitors within the same industry. It is therefore useful to take stock of the adoption of AI by captives and their managers in the first quarter of 2026.

Employee benefits captives have transformed from simple financing mechanisms into strategic platforms that deliver long-term financial value and support broader corporate objectives, according to International SOS Chief Risk Officer Franck Baron. Baron’s company has used its employee benefits (EB) captive to retain underwriting results, smooth volatility, and improve predictability across cycles while expanding into health risk management initiatives. The captive now addresses medical inflation, absenteeism, and long-term disability while

Hong Kong’s Insurance Authority has authorized its first new captive insurer of 2026, marking the third formation in the jurisdiction within less than a year as it actively pursues Asian market expansion. CNNC Captive Insurance Limited, established by China National Nuclear Corporation, brings Hong Kong’s total captive count to seven insurers. The formation represents a significant shift for the jurisdiction, which had remained relatively dormant for several years with

Generali Employee Benefits (GEB) marks 60 years in global employee benefits, highlighting its 127-country network and a forward agenda focused on digital transformation, analytics, inclusivity and sustainability.

MAXIS Global Benefits Network (MAXIS GBN) in September 2025 launched MAXIS+, an enhanced suite of health data insights and wellness services for its multinational clients. The MAXIS+ services have been designed to help multinationals drill deeper into their claims and truly understand their employee health. The new range of services includes a sophisticated new medical claims dashboard that has the most up-to-date data, allowing multinationals to generate bespoke reports and create

Adriana Scherzinger has a rich background in the insurance industry, which has been highlighted by her recent appointment as Zurich Insurance Group’s group head of captives. She has been with Zurich since 2005, having held various significant roles across different regions, including Latin America and the Middle East, and more recently in the U.S. and Switzerland​​. Scherzinger’s educational background includes an Executive MBA from Fundação Getulio Vargas in Brazil

Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE (AGCS) in July 2022 announced it had merged its captive solutions team into its multinational business. AGCS’s multinational business provides ART (alternative risk transfer), global programs, captive fronting, and reinsurance to large and mid-sized companies as far as P/C coverage is concerned. Guy Money, previously global head of product at AGCS, is the new global head of multinational business. He is based in

Global employee benefits network IGP in February 2022 announced the launch of a Center of Expertise (CoE) for Reinsurance to Captive and Global Underwriting Programs. The new CoE represents a departure from IGP’s long-standing focus on pooling. Alongside the more traditional multinational pooling programs, IGP has expanded its offer to Global Underwriting and Reinsurance to Captive programs and now introduces a re-designed operational workflow that facilitates their implementation either

The French government had promised to review the tax framework for captives to encourage their creation in France. However, in November 2021, it appeared that the measure would not be part of the 2022 Finance Bill. The creation of a specific mechanism allowing captives to smooth their reserves over time, i.e. equalization reserves, is understood to be considered by the European Union as a “state aid mechanism”, and therefore

As conditions continue to tighten in the commercial insurance market, more captive insurance companies are being created, according to a newly released Marsh Captive Solutions report. The September 2021 report, titled The Captive Landscape: Global Growth Affirms Captives’ Value in Solving Business Challenges, is based on Marsh Captive Solutions’ annual benchmarking survey of more than 1,300 Marsh-managed captive insurance companies. This year’s report is Marsh’s 14th edition. So far this year,

Due to the coronavirus / COVID-19 outbreak, the Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA) cancelled its 2020 International Conference. The event had been slated to take place on March 8-10, 2020 in California, USA. No new date has been announced at the time of publication.

The Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA) 2020 International Conference will take place on March 8-10, 2020, at the Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort and Spa in Rancho Mirage, California. The conference theme in 2020 is “Building on the Best”. The CICA conference explores new uses of captives, how to engage new talent, and outlines best practices. A Professional Development Track provides training for captive and risk management professionals. Conference

Burlington, Vermont, USA-based Distributed Ledger Governance Association (DLGA) in July 2019 launched a blockchain working group dedicated to captive reinsurance companies. The U.S. state of Vermont is a major domicile for captive insurers and reinsurers. DLGA’s mission statement is “to enable [its] members to successfully demonstrate and accelerate commercialization of their distributed ledger technology (DLT). [DLGA believes] this can best be accomplished through effectively engaging with government and stakeholders

Generali Employee Benefits (GEB) and global consulting and digital solutions company Accenture in April 2019 announced the release of a new blockchain technology solution to be applied to the employee benefits sector. The blockchain technology is reported to facilitate data sharing, thereby  increasing transparency within the reinsurance process for captive or pooling services. It is also designed to reduce processing errors through the use of smart contracts and automated

Luxembourg-based captive manager Sogecore in April 2019 acquired Abacus Risk Management Services in Malta. Abacus manages and operates captives and insurance carriers on behalf of their owners; it also offers Protected Cell Company (PCC) services. What is a PCC? A PCC is essentially a slice of a single insurance or reinsurance carrier that operates separately from other such slices in the same carrier. The carrier’s license and support functions

Replicating an earlier deal in 2017 between the European Union (E.U.) and the United States (U.S.), the latter in January 2019 signed a “covered agreement” with the United Kingdom (UK) that protects their respective international insurers and reinsurers when doing business with each other. The new covered agreement basically provides for a limited but very useful form of mutual recognition of reinsurance companies and of (re)insurance regulators. The existing

With large international companies managing and financing their group-wide risks centrally, there is a pressing need for a central risk management tool. Captive concepts, which have been around for many years, answer this need and have become very popular in risk management.

GBV: Thank you all for agreeing to this interview. Can we start with a history of captives in general and of the use of captives for employee benefits over the past 25 years?

China’s insurance regulator, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), in February 2018 “temporarily” took over Anbang Insurance Group. Its chairman Wu Xiaohui in June 2017 was detained by authorities and is now facing prosecution on charges including fundraising fraud and embezzlement. Anbang’s growth was driven by high-yield, investment-type insurance products, many of which allowed redemption after as little as two years with little or no penalties. The growth helped fund

Willis Towers Watson (WTW) in October 2017 announced that Paul Devitt has joined its Global Services and Solutions consultancy team as a director, based in London, U.K. According to Mark Cook, a director with the WTW Global Services team and a frequent speaker on the global E.B. conferences circuit, E.B. captives consulting “is an area that is growing fast as more and more companies look to leverage their scale

Sun Life Financial and Pareto Captive Services in October 2017 announced a new stop-loss group captive solution, Legend Re, which will be available in the U.S. for policies effective January 1, 2018. The initiative is designed to reduce claims volatility for small and medium self-funded employers or fully-insured employers transitioning to self-funding in order to realize cost savings. Employers in a group captive typically have under 500 employees, are

Interest in using captive programs as risk-management tools has been slowly growing within the Employee Benefits (EB) community for some time. But recently it has been gaining momentum, as multinational corporations have begun to realize the potential the concept holds.

The management of employee benefit plans through captives continues to gain traction with multinational corporations in all sectors of industry. Captives are rarely the beginning but generally the end point of a risk management journey. Every journey has a starting point, of course. This year’s European Captive Forum (ECF) in Luxembourg included several employee benefit related breakout sessions. One was called “Getting Started – What Do You Need to Consider and What Is the Role of HR?”