The Guernsey Insurance Company Management Association (GICMA) is funding an update of the text that is core to the Certificate in Captive Insurance Management offered by the Guernsey Training Agency (GTA) University Centre through Glasgow Caledonian University (GCAL).

The course is the only one of its type in the world to be provided by a higher education establishment. It is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), and from early in 2008 could offer even more points towards its Advanced Diploma.

“Guernsey has a strong captive insurance heritage and is still Europe’s number one jurisdiction in the field. The Island’s captive insurance industry has always been proud of its highly skilled workforce and therefore it is not surprising that it pioneered what has gone on to become one of the leading professional development tools in the captive insurance world,” stated Peter Niven, Chief Executive of GuernseyFinance.

“Of course, the Island has not maintained its leading position by standing still and the area of training is no exception. The content of the book – the core text for the Certificate – is being updated to reflect developments in the industry and steps are being taken so that the Certificate itself is given what we feel to be the appropriate weight by the CII. Guernsey remains at the forefront of captive insurance education," Niven added.

It was a combination of the Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) Group, GCAL and the GTA that in 2002 established the Certificate in Captive Insurance Management, with John Parkinson’s ‘Captives & Captive Management for Practitioners and Owners’ as the core text.

To date, nearly 60 people have completed the Certificate, and currently undertaking the course are 50 students from Guernsey, the Caribbean, Malta, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Scotland, London, South Africa and the Middle East.

GICMA is funding an update of the material, which will be carried out by the GCAL team. The new text – which will appear alongside the original as additional material – is expected to be ready in December, and to be introduced from January 2008. The GTA is seeking to increase to 25 from 20 the number of points available towards the Advanced Diploma.

2007 marks 21 years since Guernsey put in place its regulatory framework for captives, and is the tenth anniversary of the introduction of the Protected Cell Company (PCC).

Figures from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) show that as of 31 October 2007, Guernsey hosted 303 pure captives, 71 PCCs, 262 PCC cells, 1 ICC and 1 ICC cell – making a total of 638 international insurance entities.

The Island has 26 authorised managers writing business of GBP18.8bn in gross assets, a net worth of GBP6.5bn, and GBP3.4bn in premiums.