Long reads

With overnight borrowing rates anticipated to come down this year, captives may be advised to alter their investment strategies and invest in intermediate maturity, high quality fixed-income sectors to maximise returns from a changing fiscal environment.

Captive recruiters are expanding beyond traditional areas to attract talent from other areas of the insurance sector as well as from entirely different industries, aiming to address an alarming talent shortage in the industry.

A growing number of companies in the mining, metals, oil and gas sectors are looking towards captive utilisation, particularly in the metals and mining middle market segment, with traditional carriers reducing capacity and increasing exclusions concerning climate risk.

There has been a growth in the number of captive owners looking a utilising their captives to write marine insurance with the availability of accurate data reducing the unpredictability of the risk.

The appeal of a business-friendly regulator and 0% premium tax are some reasons why Arizona continues to be an attractive domestic domicile option within the United States.

While the Labour election victory on 4 July is expected to delay progress on the proposed United Kingdom captive legislation, local industry has not given hope of pushing the new framework through.

There is an increasing number of captives requesting unbundled fronting services where the fronting carrier takes no risk with the client reinsuring 100% to the captive.

Despite the first Lloyd’s Captive Syndicate being formed this year, there is unlikely to be a sudden surge of new captive syndicates as the proposition is expected to appeal to only the largest multinational organisations in the short term.