With the adoption of the Insurance Investment Act of 2008, Bermuda has adopted risk-based capital adequacy standards for “high impact insurers” and instituted a structure which will be equivalent to those in Europe's Solvency II Directive. The requirements include enhanced financial statement disclosures for Bermuda's Class 4 insurers which comply with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), re-classification of the Class 3 insurance sector, with sub-categories based upon risk profiles, and a new category of Special Purpose Insurer, which is focused on fully collateralized special purpose vehicles that are established to conduct certain transactions, especially those related to asset-backed securitizations. One goal of this new classification is to make it less costly for SPVs to be established in Bermuda. A press release issued by the Bermuda Monetary Authority briefly summarizes the Act.
This post written by Rollie Goss.