Captive Insurance in Guernsey Europe’s leading captive domicile Banking
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Europe’s leading captive domicile Guernsey provides organisations with a proven gateway to captive success As market conditions become more complex and corporate risk profiles evolve, Guernsey offers an established, practical and internationally respected platform for captive insurance and risk financing.
What are captives and why do they matter? A captive insurance company is a licensed insurance or reinsurance company established primarily to insure or reinsure the risks of its parent organisation or affiliated companies. Captives can range from single-parent structures to multi-owner facilities, Protected Cell Companies (PCCs) and Incorporated Cell Companies (ICCs).
Captives can help organisations: • Fund deductibles and retain appropriate risks
• Finance emerging, volatile or difficult-to-insure risks
• Support global insurance programmes and optimise access to reinsurance capacity
• Stabilise long-term insurance costs and strengthen enterprise risk management
• Improve visibility over claims trends and underwriting performance
• Develop solutions where traditional market placements alone may not fully meet the organisation’s needs
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Captive Insurance in Guernsey
The 2026 Airmic Captives Survey estimates that Airmic members spend more than £5.5 billion in annual premium through their captives and hold more than £25 billion in captive assets under management, demonstrating the scale and importance of captives to modern corporate risk management.
St. Peter Port, Guernsey
guernseyfinance.com
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Why Guernsey? Guernsey is Europe’s leading captive insurance domicile, home to 322 licensed captive insurers, including 196 standalone captives and 126 cell captives and one of the world’s most established international insurance centres, helping businesses take control through experience, innovation and opportunity.
The jurisdiction combines long-standing insurance expertise with a specialist ecosystem across captives, reinsurance, alternative risk transfer and supporting professional services.
Europe’s leading captive domicile World-leading innovation in Protected Cell and Incorporated Cell Companies Proportionate, internationally respected regulation Close links to London and global insurance and reinsurance markets A stable legal, political and tax-neutral environment for international business
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Captive Insurance in Guernsey
Why Guernsey? The 2026 Airmic Captives Survey underlines Guernsey’s position, with the jurisdiction accounting for more than 60% of the captives represented in the survey. Against the backdrop of renewed UK interest in captive insurance, Guernsey provides established tailor-made solutions available today: supported by deep captive expertise evidenced across a wide range of corporate risk financing strategies. Guernsey has been awarded European Domicile of the Year in five of the last six Captive Review Awards, including the 2025 awards.
“Guernsey stands out for its comprehensive case studies, innovative structures, responsiveness, internal improvements, industry engagement initiatives and support for captives.” Captive Review Awards Judges 2025
Admiral Park, Guernsey
guernseyfinance.com
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Protected & incorporated cell companies Guernsey pioneered the Protected Cell Company, introducing the world’s first PCC legislation in 1997 and creating a structure that has influenced insurance markets worldwide. Today, Protected Cell Companies (PCCs) and Incorporated Cell Companies (ICCs) provide flexible routes into captive insurance and other risk financing structures. A PCC is a single legal entity made up of individual cells, with each cell’s assets and liabilities legally segregated from the others. An ICC goes further, with each incorporated cell operating as a separate legal entity.
Benefits include: • Efficient formation and administration • Segregation of risk between participants • Flexible capital structures • Cost-efficient access to captive solutions • Support for rent-a-captive and incubator models • Governance, risk management and reporting arrangements aligned to participant requirements PCCs and ICCs can support captives, reinsurers, MGAs, insurance-linked securities and other bespoke risk financing arrangements.
“We have had a PCC for over 20 years. It has proved itself as an invaluable and highly flexible tool over that time. PCCs are incredibly versatile and offer the ability to execute innovative solutions within Guernsey’s highly user-friendly environment.” William Lewis, Director of HIPCC
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Captive Insurance in Guernsey
Current captive trends Captives have moved beyond traditional property and casualty risk financing and are increasingly used where organisations need more control over emerging, volatile or inefficiently priced risks. The 2026 Airmic Captives Survey shows this shift clearly: 24% of respondents already have a “Captive First” policy, while the remaining 76% plan to use their captives for further covers or services. A Captive First approach means considering the captive at the outset of risk financing decisions, not only when traditional insurance becomes expensive or difficult to obtain.
Areas of growing captive relevance include: • Emerging and volatile risks: cyber, climate, supply chain, business interruption and sustainability-related risks
• Risk improvement: data gathering, predictive analytics and risk management solutions
• People and liability risks: employee benefits, professional indemnity, D&O, product liability and environmental exposures
• Specialist risk transfer: transactional, contingent, credit, political, parametric and other difficult-to-insure risks
“Captives are fundamentally an important part of the ecosystem. They represent another way of incubating risk, not just optimising an insurance program.” Tom Hoad, Head of Howden Ventures
St. Peter Port, Guernsey
guernseyfinance.com
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A trusted regulatory regime Guernsey combines internationally recognised standards with a proportionate supervisory approach for established international insurance activity. Its credibility has been reinforced by independent international assessment, including an IAIS peer review which found Guernsey to be Fully Observant of Insurance Core Principle 13, the highest level of assessment. Alongside Guernsey’s positive MONEYVAL assessment, this supports the jurisdiction’s reputation for balancing commercial flexibility with strong supervision and governance.
Captives established in Guernsey benefit from: • A respected and experienced regulator • Proportionate, risk-based solvency requirements • Strong corporate governance standards • Deep professional expertise • Practical licensing processes and speed to market
Speed to market can be valuable when an organisation is responding to a renewal challenge, emerging exposure or new commercial opportunity. Boards typically combine parent company representatives, experienced independent non-executive directors and local professional expertise, depending on the captive’s nature and complexity. This helps ensure captives operate as genuine insurance businesses, with appropriate oversight, risk management and decision-making.
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Captive Insurance in Guernsey
“Right at the top (of why Guernsey is an attractive domicile for captives) is quality, they have fantastic people, there is a lot of knowledge and experience in Guernsey”
Julia Graham Former CEO of Airmic
St Peter Port, Guernsey
guernseyfinance.com
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Accessing reinsurance and alternative capital Captives provide efficient access to global reinsurance markets, helping organisations balance retained risk with wider market capacity. As captives write broader coverage and assume greater risk, diverse reinsurance capacity is becoming an increasingly important enabler of captive growth. Where appropriate, captive programmes may also use insurance-linked securities or other alternative capital solutions. By retaining appropriate levels of risk and transferring excess exposures through reinsurance, organisations can: • Reduce frictional costs within the insurance programme • Improve programme flexibility and long-term stability • Deploy capital more efficiently across retained and transferred risk • Access specialist underwriting expertise Guernsey’s specialist reinsurance market gives captive owners access to deep reinsurance and alternative risk transfer expertise.
Admiral Park, Guernsey
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“Guernsey offers an exceptional foundation for innovation in reinsurance… we are proud to be part of that ecosystem.”
Solomon Garber Co-founder of Navigate Re
guernseyfinance.com
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Captives in action
Global risk financing Mondi plc UK-based FTSE 100 packaging and paper group Mondi plc established a single-parent captive in Guernsey at the end of 2025, one of three FTSE 100-owned captives licensed in the island that year.
MGA alignment Purbeck Insurance Services UK-based personal guarantee insurance specialist Purbeck Insurance Services established Purbeck Re in Guernsey, enabling the MGA to take a direct share of underwriting risk. Purbeck described the move as a “strategic evolution”, aligning its interests more closely with the businesses it supports. “By taking a direct share of the risk, we are demonstrating that we truly stand alongside the SME owners we support.” Todd Davison Managing Director, Purbeck Insurance Services
Beyond the traditional captive Jaguar Land Rover Jaguar Land Rover established a pure captive in Guernsey to reinsure customer motor policies in the UK. Using a commercial insurer to front the programme, JLR’s captive allows the manufacturer to deploy its own capital alongside the commercial insurance market. The structure shows how a captive can use capital, data and risk insight where the traditional market may not fully meet customer needs.
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Captive Insurance in Guernsey
“UK FTSE 100 companies may collectively save almost £100 million per year by using Guernsey Captives”
Frontier Economics The value of Guernsey’s Financial Services to the UK economy
guernseyfinance.com
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Establishing a captive in Guernsey Establishing a captive is typically led by the organisation’s broker, insurance manager and professional advisers, with early regulatory engagement where appropriate. A feasibility assessment will usually test commercial viability, capital requirements, risk profile, operating model, reinsurance strategy and governance.
A typical process may include: 1. Initial discussion 2. Feasibility assessment 3. Structure and capital design 4. Regulatory engagement 5. Licensing and implementation 6. Ongoing management and governance
Following regulatory engagement and licensing approval, the captive can commence underwriting and become integrated within the organisation’s broader risk financing strategy. Guernsey’s insurance ecosystem brings together insurance managers, brokers, reinsurers, lawyers, auditors, actuaries, banks, investment managers and governance specialists. This depth of expertise supports the formation, management and growth of sophisticated insurance and risk financing structures for international clients and corporate groups. In this way, a captive can become more than an insurance vehicle: it can support smarter risk financing, stronger governance and better long-term outcomes for the business.
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Captive Insurance in Guernsey
“Guernsey, every time I looked at it, it came top… the service sector, the level of professional expertise, is first class. We met the regulator and had excellent initial discussions… Guernsey ticked every box and it has absolutely not disappointed.”
Gus Majed Group CEO and Founder, Paratus Group
guernseyfinance.com
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