Guernsey overtakes Luxembourg as largest captive domicile in Europe

Guernsey is now the largest domicile for captive insurance in Europe with a total of 201 captives domiciled in the island at the end of 2022, Guernsey Finance has revealed.

Last year, Guernsey approved 12 new captive licences and had three surrenders. This overall increase of nine puts Guernsey at the top for captive numbers, overtaking Luxembourg with whom Guernsey tied joint largest European domicile at the end of 2021. Luxembourg reported a total of 195 captives at the end of 2022.

Rupert Pleasant, chief executive of Guernsey Finance, said this is tremendous news for Guernsey. “It is testament to the quality and experience of our practitioners. Guernsey is a globally renowned centre for specialist financial services, a jurisdiction of substance and it is gratifying to reach this milestone,” he said.

“Guernsey has a long history of domiciling captives, with the first captive insurer being incorporated into the island over 100 years ago. Since then, the island’s insurance industry has continuously evolved and innovated to provide the very best infrastructure for its clients, and we were proudly recognised as European Domicile of the Year at the 2022 European Captive Review Awards,” Pleasant added.

Mark Elliott, chair of the Guernsey International Insurance Association (GIIA), said: “This is a great endorsement of Guernsey’s captive offering, coming soon after our 100 years of captives anniversary celebrations. We have a high quality, experienced captive infrastructure with leading service providers and a pragmatic and robust regulator which is what sets us apart. We look forward to continuing to innovate and promote the captive proposition to existing and new clients going forwards.”

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