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62% of Labuan captive premium generated from international business

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More than 62% of captive premium in Labuan in 2022 was generated from international insurance business.

The Labuan captive sector has continued to gain momentum with five new captive formed in 2022 bringing the total number of captives to 67 and total gross premiums to US$571m.

“This underscores Labuan IBFC’s prominence as the captive market of choice regionally and globally,” a spokesperson for the Labuan IBFC, told Captive Intelligence.

“The captive market in Labuan has traditionally attracted interest from corporates and GLCs within the Asian region, with recent captive premiums mainly derived from Indonesian and Japanese businesses.”

The five new captives formed in Labuan last year were approved to underwrite agricultural and fire-related risks.

In a long read published in June, Captive Intelligence reported Labuan is set to allow some captives to write third-party risk, in addition to the risks of its owner or members, in the case of association captives.

This will likely make the domicile a more attractive proposition for new formations or re-domestications.

Abie Pua, principal officer of Labuan-domiciled Howden PCC (L) Bhd and head of risk consulting at Howden Broking, said that talent recruitment, especially for personnel with experience in captive consulting and management, was one of the key challenges that Labuan is facing as it tries to grow as a domicile.

“This remains a key challenge as there is not any training or development programme offered by a professional body or institution in the Asia region,” she added.

Pua highlighted that Howden Malaysia is the only team among the Howden Asia offices that can provide full range captive consulting services ranging from captive feasibility studies, captive formation, captive management services, and captive reinsurance placement.

On 1 January 2023, Howden Broking Group (HBG) launched a new captive consultancy and captive management service, in conjunction with Strategic Risk Solutions (SRS).

Pua said the move responds to Howden’s strategic move into the large retail client segment, where captives are an accepted and common means of self-financing risk.

She added it was a natural and obvious extension of Howden’s existing analytics, specialty, large client and reinsurance capabilities in order to benefit the broker’s clients and prospective clients.

Utah captive fined for operating as unauthorised insurer in Washington State

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Washington State’s Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler has fined Drico Insurance Company, a Utah-domiciled captive, $1,000 for transacting unauthorised insurance in his state.

Captive Intelligence reported in May that Airbnb had been fined $20,000 by Commisioner Kreidler for a similar offence.

Drico Insurance is owned by Diamond Parking Services and was licensed by the Utah Insurance Department in January 2018.



The captive has been providing property, liability, and auto insurance to Washington consumers since 2018.

“The Office of the Insurance Commissioner (“OIC”) opened an investigation upon receipt of an internal referral alleging the Company does not qualify for registration as a captive insurer and is acting as an unauthorized insurer,” Kreidler’s office stated in a consent order.

Drico applied to register with the OIC in September 2021, but it failed as the Commissioner required it demonstrate its assets exceeded its liabilities by at least one million dollars.

The OIC deemed the captive owed $33,698 in premium taxes corresponding to the years 2018 to 2021, which the company paid in full on February 15, 2022.

Kreidler’s office said Washington was the insured’s home state after documents provided by the captive showed Washington had the largest percentage of premium attributed to it.

“Hence, Washington is the insured’s home state pursuant to RCW 48.15.010(5)(b) and the company is required to obtain a certificate of authorization from the Insurance Commissioner to transact the business of insurance in the state of Washington,” the OIC added.

As part of the consent order, agreed and signed by both the OIC and Drico Insurance Company, the captive will pay the $1,000 fine and pay premium taxes of $14,016 owed for 2022.

Drico will need to obtain a captive insurer registration from the Insurance Commissioner.

“Throughout the application review process, the Company shall comply with all regulatory requirements related to a captive insurer,” the order states.

“If the Company is unable to obtain a captive insurer registration from the Insurance Commissioner, existing policies cannot be renewed.”

Kreidler became well known to the captive insurance industry in 2018 when he began targeting self-insurance subsidiaries owned by Washington-headquartered businesses, accusing them of being unauthorised thus insuring risk in the state illegally.

Microsoft, Costco, Alaska Airlines and Starbucks were among those corporates caught up in enforcement action before a legislative fix was landed upon in 2021.

John Morrey retires as Stonefort Group CEO

John Morrey has retired as CEO of Stonefort Group having built the formerly named Luxembourg captive Builders Re into a diversified insurance, reinsurance and independent captive management business during his 21 years at the company.

Builders Re was originally formed as reinsurance captive for German construction giant Hochtief in 2000, but wrote third party business from day one and, largely driven Morrey, only grew over the next 23 years.

Builders Re and Builders Insurance, the group’s Luxembourg-domiciled direct writing insurer, were rebranded to Stonefort in September 2022, along with its independent captive management arm.

Morrey, with colleagues Koenraad Everaert, chief insurance officer, and head of marketing Bertrand Gilson, explained the background of Stonefort and its focus today in a GCP Short recorded at the European Captive Forum in November 2022.

In a post on LinkedIn, Morrey said it was “with a mixture of anticipation and some sadness” that he was announcing his retirement.

“It has been an amazing journey, from a cardboard box of files in 2002 to an AM Best “A-” rated, thriving organisation of more than 50 people operating out of our premises in Steinfort (Luxembourg), London and Düsseldorf,” he added.

“I look back at this significant period in my career with immense pride at the hurdles overcome and the many important achievements contributing to the highly successful organisation we see today.

“I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all my colleagues, past and present, for all their hard work, professionalism, commitment and support over the years.”

Morrey is succeeded by Michael Dehm as CEO of Stonefort Group.

France a competitive domicile, Captive Federation to launch this year – Oliver Wild

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France has the opportunity to build a whole captive ecosystem now its new regulatory regime is in place with risk management association Amrae planning to launch a Captive Federation in September.

Captive Intelligence reported in June the French government had confirmed details of the equalisation provision made available to reinsurance captives and last week the first two new entities were licensed since publication of the decree.



Captives formed by Limagrain, an international agricultural co-operative group founded by French farmers, and Naval Group, the part state-owned French industrial group that specialises in naval defence design, takes the number of reinsurance captives domiciled in France to 12.

Speaking in an exclusive interview on GCP #89 Oliver Wild, president of Amrae, said they were very pleased with the resulting legislation and framework after more than four years of lobbying.

“The major achievement is through this change we have been able to allow organisations, companies to take their own destiny in their own hands effectively, and take more control of how they manage risk and how they anticipate and prepare for negative events,” Wild said.

“The outcome is in line with what you can find elsewhere, so it means that France is now a competitive domicile compared to other countries. We have a true opportunity in that market. I expect that whole ecosystem to develop strongly in France.”

Captive Intelligence understands there is a strong pipeline of further captive formations that could be completed this year, although there will be pressure on the French regulator to prevent a bottleneck of applications building up.

When Amrae surveyed its members in 2022 it showed around 50 organisations were interested in forming a captive, with 28 of those waiting to see the details of the French captive regime before proceeding or making a domicile choice.

The Association is planning to launch a Captive Federation in September that would serve as a community for captive owners, both in France and overseas, as well as a resource for companies that are considering or in the process of establishing one.

“The Federation will also have a strong role to play there on bringing those people together and sharing practices and answering questions,” Wild added.

“A captive is not a tool that you build overnight. There’s education to be done internally as well with your CFO, with your director of operations and so on, to really understand how you can make the most out of your captive and your insurance and risk management strategy.

“That’s why we firmly believe the Federation will have a lot of work on its hands bringing that community together and making sure that everyone, if they have any doubts or fears, that we can respond to that and share the practices that we have.”

Listen to the full exclusive interview with Oliver Wild, President of Amrae, on the Global Captive Podcast here, or on any podcast app.

GCP #89: Amrae’s Oliver Wild on French captive regime, and Gerry Willinger, of OneNexus

Oliver Wild, Amrae
Gerry Willinger, OneNexus

In episode 89 of the Global Captive Podcast, supported by the EY Global Captive Network, Richard is joined by Oliver Wild, President of Amrae, who explains why the French risk management association has lobbied hard for a captive regime and his reaction to the legislation now in place.

Developments in France is one of the stories we have covered most extensively since launching Captive Intelligence in December 2022, and Wild, who is also Group Chief Risk and Insurance Officer at Veolia Environnement, provides insight on how big the French captive market could be.

We also have an interview with Gerry Willinger, Co-founder and Chief Risk Officer of OneNexus, a captive owner in Oklahoma, that is providing risk transfer solutions for Asset Retirement Obligations (“AROs”) concerning the decommissioning of wells in the oil and gas sector.

2.24 – 17.55: Amrae’s Oliver Wild on the motivations for lobbying for a French captive regime, reaction to the results and the Association’s plan to start a Captive Federation.

18.53 – 32.27: Gerry Willinger, of OneNexus, explains the business plan behind their cell captive in Oklahoma.

32.30 – end: Amrae’s Oliver Wild on whether there could re-domestications of overseas captives back to France and the potential numbers of new captive formations.

For all the relevant news and analysis on developments in the captive insurance sector, visit Captive Intelligence and sign up to our twice-weekly newsletter here.

Limagrain and Naval Group form latest French captives

Limagrain and Naval Group have received captive licences from the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR), following the recent publication of the French captive decree.

Limagrain is an international agricultural co-operative group that specialises in field seeds, vegetable seeds and cereal products, founded and managed by French farmers.

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Captive Intelligence provides high-value information, industry analysis, exclusive interviews and business intelligence tools to professionals in the captive insurance market.

Loss ratio the “wrong instrument” to assess abusive transactions – CICA

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The Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA) has told the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) it believes that using a 65% loss ratio threshold as the measuring stick for whether a micro-captive transaction is abusive is the “wrong instrument”.

Captive Intelligence reported in April that the IRS had proposed new regulations for “micro captives”, which have divided opinion across America’s captive landscape and prompted a flurry of responses to the Service.

“The underlying premise appears to be that a small captive insurance company that writes property and casualty insurance must look something like an “average” non-captive insurance company,” Dan Towle, preside of CICA said in a letter to the IRS.

“The reality is that every commercial insurance company has its own risk profile, loss ratios, expenses, and profit and contingencies levels; and none of them are “average.’”

The Association said that the inherent problem is that losses are evidence of risk, “but lack of losses is not evidence of lack of risk.”

“If my house burns down, but my neighbour’s house does not, I have substantial losses, but my risk was no different than my neighbour’s.”

CICA said that it is imperative the IRS does not label transactions as “listed transactions” that are properly characterised as “transactions of interest”, and that the IRS does not label transactions as “transactions of interest” when they do not have the potential for tax avoidance.

“The proposed regulations do not accomplish this task,” Towle said.

CICA added the proposed regulations and their suggested tests for identifying abusive transactions will not succeed in identifying abusive versus non-abusive transactions.

The Association said the proposed regulations will not work because of a lack of a precise definition for “insurance” in a tax or insurance context, and the loss ratio is an improper test to identify a “listed transaction”.

The National Council of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) has also submitted a comment letter to the IRS urging it to retract its proposed rule.

NCOIL said that the IRS proposals are a significant threat to the longstanding framework of the state regulation of insurance and violates the McCarran-Ferguson Doctrine.

NCOIL CEO, Commissioner Tom Considine, said: “We at NCOIL urge the IRS to retract the proposed rule and return to the drawing board to address its stated concerns in a way that is narrow, tailored, non-retroactive, and most importantly does not violate the McCarran-Ferguson Doctrine by infringing on the Congressionally-delegated rights of the States to regulate the business of insurance.”

Earlier this week, the 831(b) Institute launched in the US and asked for clarity from the IRS on how it regulates micro-captives, arguing that it “unfairly” scrutinises them.

Oklahoma’s Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready recently called on the IRS to withdraw its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) concerning micro captives and form a joint task force consisting of the IRS, regulators and representatives of the captive insurance industry.

Domicile Wars: D&O, cannabis potential growth areas for Oklahoma, re-domestications targeted


  • State is investing in greater captive regulatory resources
  • Insurance Commissioner wants OK businesses to know “it’s time to come home”
  • Oklahoma’s corporate law could be amended to allow Side A D&O to be insured by captives
  • Captives could solve remediation bond challenge in medical marijuana sector

Oklahoma is looking to expand its offering to captives by adapting its regulation to allow Oklahoma-domiciled captives to write Side A directors and officers insurance.

The use of captives by cannabis companies is also a potential growth opportunity for the State due to its relaxed laws around marijuana and increasing captive interest from the cannabis industry.

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Captive Intelligence provides high-value information, industry analysis, exclusive interviews and business intelligence tools to professionals in the captive insurance market.

FERMA elects Charlotte Hedemark as its next President

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The Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA) has elected Charlotte Hedemark as the next president of the organisation.

Hedemark is a risk management expert at SAP and is currently vice president and a board member of FERMA.

Her tenure as president will officially begin on 17 October at the closing of the FERMA Seminar 2023 in Belgium, where she will succeed Dirk Wegener following the completion of his four-year tenure as president.

“It is an honour to be elected President of FERMA,” said Hedemark. “During a period of unprecedented challenges for corporations across Europe, the criticality of FERMA’s role in representing the interests of its member associations and raising the profile of the risk profession has never been greater.”

“As we look forward during this time of uncertainty, FERMA will continue to act as a strategic radar for the industry, monitoring developments, informing associations, and addressing policymakers. In my role, I will work to ensure FERMA continues to be a rallying point for our members as we all strive to Be Risk Leaders.”

Her election was announced at the first meeting of the new FERMA board following the annual general assembly in Brussels on 27 June.

She is a well-respected risk professional and has been a strong figure in the ongoing development of FERMA in recent years.

She has worked in Global Risk & Assurance Services (GR&AS) at SAP for more than 15 years and is presently a risk management expert in Customer Success Risk Assurance Services.

“I am delighted that Charlotte has been elected to the position of President,” said Wegener.

“Her deep understanding of the risk management function and commitment to evolving and elevating the profession through her involvement with the wider risk community make her the ideal candidate to take the helm at FERMA as we help guide our members and represent their interests at all levels.”

The 831(b) Institute launches in US, demands clarity from the IRS

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The 831(b) Institute has launched in the US and is asking for clarity from the IRS around how it regulates micro-captives, arguing that it “unfairly” scrutinises them.

Instead of creating guidelines that allow for micro-captive plans to be fairly regulated, the 831(b) Institute argues that the IRS is attempting to push forward harmful regulation that will make micro-captives less effective.

The 831(b) Institute said it was formed to bring the business community together and give them a voice around what true risk mitigation and insurance coverage means to small and medium-sized businesses.

“Insurance is an essential part of owning a business, but often complicated rules and lack of proper guidance from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) result in confusion and misconceptions,” the Institute said.

“Our country is built on entrepreneurial spirit, and micro-captive insurance helps protect the livelihoods of America’s entrepreneurs.”

The Institute argued that micro-captives can serve as an excellent insurance option for small business owners, as they allow for self-reliance, independence, and flexibility for businesses.

“The inability of the IRS to create clear regulatory standards for micro-captives is harmful to good faith business owners looking to have an insurance plan in place that allows them to participate in the risk and premium of their insurance programs in the same manner as large enterprises,” said Nate Reznicek, president and principal consultant at Captive.Insure, and advisor to the Institute.

“This includes the ability to help to cover unpredictable expenses and potentially catastrophic events.”

Captive Intelligence reported in April that the IRS had proposed new regulations for “micro captives”, which have divided opinion across America’s captive landscape, with some saying they could destroy the industry, while others have branded it a refreshing change.

Oklahoma’s Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready recently called on the IRS to withdraw its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) concerning micro captives and form a joint task force consisting of the IRS, regulators and representatives of the captive insurance industry.