Bermuda is a key market for risk transfer, a hub for the flow of some of the most innovative risk solutions. At one time a niche captives market, the Island has not only continued its dominance as the global leader in that area, it has also emerged as the world’s second largest reinsurance market and a powerful force in commercial insurance. Bermuda reinsurers provide an estimated 40 percent of US property catastrophe reinsurance capacity, and paid nearly 30 percent of the insured losses from 2005 Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.

In the wake of the 2005 storm season, new companies set up in Bermuda having aggregate capital of some $10 billion. Importantly, market growth has occurred in Bermuda in the absence of major catastrophes, firmly establishing the Island as the domicile of choice for new reinsurance start-ups. Wharton School Professor J David Cummins highlighted the Bermuda Insurance Market for its value to global markets. Bermuda’s natural advantages as a domicile, he said, included economies of agglomeration, political stability, a low government debt burden, a high sovereign financial rating and a stable monetary system.