Singapore, the region’s largest domicile, has added one new captive so far this year, taking the domicile’s total to 83 captives.
Captive Intelligence understands the new captive, Woolworths Captive Insurance Pte Limited, is owned by the Australian Woolworths Group and was established in March.
In a long read published in September, experts shared that Singapore is experiencing growing captive activity from Asian-parented companies, with Asian-parented captives experiencing a 58% increase in premiums over the last three years.
Australian businesses, however, continue to form the majority of new captives in the domicile.
The idea of introducing PCCs has been discussed by industry and the regulator for some time but has never materialised.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) told Captive Intelligence that it is exploring the introduction of corporate structures that can facilitate multiple ILS issuances using segregated cells.
Protected cell company (PCC) legislation would be complicated for Singapore to introduce, but would lower the barrier for captive entry.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is expected to introduce a global minimum tax rate of 15% in 2025, but MAS said Singapore’s value proposition as a captive domicile is not expected to change significantly.
“Corporates setting up captive insurers in Singapore value our robust regulatory framework, enabling conditions for innovation, high quality infrastructure, skilled workforce and deep expertise as a reinsurance centre,” a MAS spokesperson said.
“Captive insurers will continue to enjoy these benefits even as tax becomes less of a determinative factor between jurisdictions.”
MAS said it generally takes approximately six to eight weeks after it has received at complete captive licence application, to then process and approve a new captive.
“As each application will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, processing time depends on the circumstances of each application and the completeness of the information submitted,” a MAS spokesperson said.
Captive Intelligence recently reported that a captive owner association is being developed in Singapore by PARIMA and could be the first of several such groups in the region.
PARIMA is the risk management association for the Asia region and has a growing number of captive owners within its membership.