Guernsey Finance recently welcomed newly appointed GIIA Chair James Stewart, who is also Client Services Director at Artex Risk Solutions, to the Guernsey Finance Podcast.
Also joining James was Jody Bisson, Deputy Chair of GIIA and Director at WTW Management Guernsey. Guernsey Finance found out all about GIIA’s strategy for 2025 and onward, as well as how Guernsey's insurance industry is evolving to meet the needs of a changing world and what makes it so uniquely placed to do so.
Tell us a bit about yourselves and your experience in the industry to date.
JB: I'm a Director at WTW management in Guernsey, and I've just taken on the role of Deputy Chair supporting James in GIIA. I'm a qualified accountant with 30 years' experience working in financial services in Guernsey. Predominantly, I've worked in the insurance management sector where I am currently today, but previously I've held roles as an underwriter, fund accountant, a financial advisor and also had a brief spell in banking. So, a diverse background, but predominantly working in the captive management space.
JS: I'm a chartered insurer. I've been involved in insurance management in Guernsey for almost 18 years now. I've been with Artex for three years, and prior to that I was with Willis Towers Watson in similar roles, having responsibility for servicing our clients and managing relationships with them.
Guernsey's insurance industry has many strengths. It's an innovator, it's home to an extensive ecosystem of service providers and remains Europe's largest captive domicile. What value does this hold for prospective clients in the UK and Europe?
JB: It shows that Guernsey is a safe, secure, reliable place to come and do business. We have been providing captive insurance management services for over 100 years. With that comes a vast degree of service providers that are knowledgeable and experienced to support you, whether that be the insurance managers, auditors who understand the regulatory environment that we operate in, and the lawyers to facilitate any form of business.
We've heard a lot recently about a softening market. What does this mean for Guernsey and how does that influence our offering?
JS: Historically, captives have done better in a hard insurance market. When premium rates have been high, capacity has been reduced and there's been a greater obvious financial driver to set up or place business into your captive.
I think what we are finding now is that as our industry has matured, so have many of our clients. They're more experienced at running their captives. They see the captive as a core part of their overall risk financing toolkit. They're seeing benefits of deploying their captive in a soft market as well as a hard market, taking control of their overall insurance spend and smoothing that cost of risk.
Many clients are now taking a captive first position. So rather than looking at their insurance program and thinking where they might slot in your captive, they’re looking at the captive as a primary risk retention vehicle and then at what risks should be seeded into the commercial insurance market.
JB: When you look at the hardening market, people set up captives very reactively. We're now seeing a more proactive approach. The potential there is for extra funds to be available, which means that you can be prepared when the hard market comes. With the technology that's coming through at the moment, the movement between soft and hard markets is a lot quicker. Having a captive set up in that soft market so that you're ready to react far quicker when the market changes is a tool that a lot of clients now want to have in their armory.
Last year's Guernsey Airmic event discussed how Guernsey has become a go-to jurisdiction for humanitarian-focused insurance structures. What are some recent examples of this?
JB: In Guernsey, we've set up structures for the International Federation of Red Cross with a catastrophe bond, which was to protect against losses related to wildfires. Most recently, working with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Guernsey has helped develop a guarantee scheme to cover war-related risks in Ukraine. This is to help support the revision of reinsurance capacity and address ongoing challenges posed by the war in that country. Hopefully, this should then help businesses have confidence that their assets are protected and allow regeneration in this area.
What makes Guernsey so well placed to facilitate these deals?
JS: We have a large base of insurance and accounting professionals who are well-versed in managing captive insurance vehicles. We have a fantastic pool of non-executive directors here in Guernsey.
The legal investment management industry here is also equally well-versed in delivering the services that captives require. Over the decades, we've built up a regulatory regime that understands the risk profile that captive insurance has. And the regulatory approach reflects this.
GIIA is the representative body for the island's insurance industry. How does GIIA work with Guernsey Finance?
JS: We work very closely with Guernsey Finance. A big part of what GIIA does is promoting our industry and the services we offer. A lot of our work with Guernsey Finance is channelled through our Market Development Committee, which is the sort of engine room within GIIA for that business development section of what we do.
It's been great having Willie Lewis, Guernsey Finance’s insurance representative, on board. He's got tremendous industry knowledge, tremendous industry contacts, and has helped us, along with the Guernsey Finance events team, arrange events that we put on both here in Guernsey and in the UK.
This includes road shows where we go out and meet with other professionals in the insurance industry in London and talk about what their clients are looking for, what services Guernsey offers and where we can provide solutions.
Under your leadership, what is GIIA’s focus for the next year or two? What's the big vision?
JS: There is a lot going on right now. The UK government has commenced a consultation on setting up a captive insurance regime in the UK.
Captive insurance is a big proportion of what we do here, and Guernsey is a long-established domicile. So, we need to make sure Guernsey is properly positioned to take advantage of potential opportunities that are coming out of this more mainstream focus on captive insurance.
The other big thing we've got this year is our second Airmic conference in Guernsey along with the UK’s insurance management professional representative body. We are looking to build on last year’s success this September.
What is the purpose of the Airmic Guernsey event and who is it aimed at?
JB: The event aims to raise the profile of Guernsey. We're recognised as a leading captive centre, and for us, we want to share that expertise that we have here in Guernsey.
The actual title of the event is 'Leading the way in international risk financing' because Guernsey has been at the forefront of innovation and development in the captive insurance space for many years now.
It is aimed at people that have their captives already established in Guernsey, so they can understand what Guernsey's doing to support them, but also those risk managers that are considering establishing captives. Attendees can meet with various professionals that are over here, and they can also understand the direction that Guernsey is travelling with regards to captive insurance management.
You can tune in to the Guernsey Finance Podcast here or by searching your preferred streaming platform.
