French legislation passed at the end of 2022 is presenting an “unprecedented opportunity” for captives in Europe, according to Emma Sansom, Zurich’s group head of captives.
In a wide-ranging interview as guest co-host of GCP #81, Zurich’s new captive chief discussed her priorities for the new role, where she expected to see further innovation and the overall value proposition of captive insurance.
Sansom moved to Switzerland to take on the new role at the start of the year, having previously been Zurich’s head of captive services in the UK. Captive Intelligence reported today that Esme Gould will succeed Sansom in that role.
Discussing recent moves in Europe for new captive legislation, Sansom said developments in France were particularly promising.
“The recent legal framework that has been announced I think is actually an unprecedented opportunity in this space,” she said.
“You’ve got the French Treasury talking about captives providing support for systemic risks for their parents. We need to be getting in and engaging with the market and understanding what it is that Zurich can do to support their customers and their new potential customers in this space.
“There’s been conversations about potential repatriation, but actually I think there’s a huge opportunity for new formations as well.
“We can provide some support and insight into those conversations along with the likes of Aon, WTW and Marsh.”
Sansom also said she was keen to explore whether more group captive-type structures could become better utilised in Europe.
Zurich already works with group captives in the North American market and in January 2023 announced it had partnered with Innovative Captive Strategies (ICS) to launch a Cayman-domiciled group captive that will bring together companies wanting to optimise their risk management programmes and advance sustainable practices.
“Why it’s worked so well in the US is because you have quite a large market, which means that diversification across a group captive portfolio is quite easily achieved,” Sansom added.
“So I think we need to establish whether or not that’s possible in Europe. They also have dedicated distribution channels and therefore they have experience in management and marketing of these structures. So it is quite well defined and quite mature in the US.”