At the on-Island seminar, co-sponsored by Barclays Wealth and London & Capital Asset Management, MIMA Chairman Derek Patience unveiled changes to Isle of Man regulations, designed to secure the long term success of the sector by broadening the range of investment options available to captive owners.

The changes are designed to allow inter-company loans from a captive to be fully admissible when calculating the captive’s solvency margin, subject to the approval of the Isle of Man Insurance Supervisor.

The Island’s pedigree was further confirmed when it was announced that companies including BAE Systems, Millea Holdings, Keller Group and Vaultex UK (a Barclays and HSBC joint venture) have formed Isle of Man captives in 2007. This fully supported MIMA’s ongoing strategy to ‘promote and develop the Isle of Man as a quality domicile for captive and general insurance business’.

The well-attended seminar detailed the Isle of Man’s strength in the captive sector with a presentation by the Barclays Wealth team on how structured products can be used by captive owners, while London & Capital spoke to the audience on ‘Absolute Return Investing’.

John Spellman, from Isle of Man Finance commented:

“It is great news, MIMA and the Island’s Government have responded to some of the recommendations identified in the recent ‘Bennet Report’. From this strategic review an ambitious strategy to enhance the Isle of Man’s captive insurance offering is being successfully developed."

He concluded: "The implementation of this strategy will reaffirm the Island’s very strong position to challenge competitor jurisdictions and allow the Isle of Man to be recognised as the domicile of choice. Watch this space!”

The seminar was themed “Asset Management for Captives”, and took place at the Villa Marina on the Isle of Man in November. The keynote speaker was Millennium Asset Management’s Roger Nightingale, a global economist and former mathematician, and a non executive director on a number of UK and International companies.