The recent formation of Italy’s first captives highlights that the importance of captives is increasingly being valued by the Italian regulator.
“There has already been a re-domestication to Italy, and it is not going to be a unique case because I am expecting other cases by the end of the year, and this is proof of at least two things,” Vittorio Pozzo, director, Europe & Great Britain captive advisory team at WTW, told Captive Intelligence.
He said it demonstrates how important captives are becoming for traditional risk transfer countries like Italy.
“It also shows that the importance of captives is recognised by the local regulator in Italy, which is not overly familiar with captives,” he said.
Last month, Italy licensed its first reinsurance captive for Enel S.p.A, and Aon is the captive manager for the new reinsurer.
Enel is an Italian multinational manufacturer and distributor of electricity and gas, which already owns Enel Insurance NV, domiciled in the Netherlands.
Pozzo said the first Italian captive gives a sense of how the regulator sees the importance of captives for the risk management community and for the insurance industry.
Multinational cable specialists Prysmian Group SpA has since received authorisation for Italy’s second captive reinsurance company, which it plans to merge with its existing Dublin captive.
Captive Intelligence understands Prysmian Riassicurazioni will be self-managed with Alessandro De Felice, chief risk officer at the parent group, appointed CEO of the captive.
Despite Italy licencing its first two captives, the country does not have specific captive legislation.
“The fact that captives are starting to pick up in Italy shows that maybe in the medium to long term, the local regulator might start studying a local captive legislation or something similar,” Pozzo said.
Carlo Cosimi, president of the Italian Association of Risk Managers (ANRA), told Captive Intelligence that if specific captive legislation is passed into law, there could be a swathe of Italian companies redomesticating or forming new captives in the country.
Pozzo said the “echo” of France was important to Italy having its first captive, and the approach that France had in terms of captives will now lead the way for other European countries to follo.
“There are going to be in my opinion, a couple of potential future scenarios in Italy but also in other countries.”