Insurers fear ‘hardship’ over 35% blacklist capacity threat

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN insurers yesterday warned they, and thousands of businesses and homeowners, will face “tremendous economic hardship” if 35 percent of reinsurance capacity is lost by The Bahamas failing to escape Europe’s tax blacklist.

Major property and casualty underwriters told Tribune Business that The Bahamas is running out of time to exit the European Union’s (EU) non-cooperative list, and in effect has only one shot at achieving such an outcome through this October’s review, if it is to secure continued German reinsurance support that is “critical” to maintaining coverage for key real estate, auto and other assets.

Anton Saunders, RoyalStar Assurance’s managing director, explained that reinsurers such as Munich Re will be prevented by German law from receiving tax relief or deductions on hurricane-related claims payouts to The Bahamas if this country still remains on the 27-nation EU’s blacklist after the October review.

Given that such payouts will likely be worth hundreds of millions of dollars if a Dorianstrength storm strikes a major Bahamian island, he added that the loss of such tax relief might deter German reinsurers from continuing to support local carriers such as RoyalStar by underwriting the bulk of this nation’s risks.

Such a scenario, if it happens, would occur at the worst-possible time given that reinsurance capacity and willingness to underwrite risks in the disaster-prone Caribbean is at a near 30-year low. Insurance Company of The Bahamas (ICB), in its just released 2022 annual report, said the drop in reinsurance availability has already pushed property insurance costs for Bahamian homeowners and businesses to the highest levels it has seen in its 26-year history.

And premium prices would be sent skyrocketing even further if Bahamian insurers lose German reinsurance support through this nation failing to exit the EU’s blacklist. Timothy Ingraham, Summit Insurance Company’s managing director, told this newspaper that the loss of such backing would likely force

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas-based billionaire who spearheaded Albany’s development was yesterday charged with orchestrating a “brazen insider trading scheme” that allegedly netted millions of dollars in illicit profits for his closest associates.

Joe Lewis, the Briton who has been a Bahamas resident since 1979, is accused by New York federal prosecutors of tipping lovers, secretaries, friends and even his private pilots to purchase various corporate stocks using non-public information he accessed in his role as a major global investor.

The 86 year-old’s attorneys last night blasted what they branded an “egregious error” by the southern New York district