Setting-up an Insurance Enterprise on the Rock

This activity is one of the fastest growing segments in the finance sector with staggering growth from 13 insurers in 2000 to 118 to date including Aon, one of the world’s biggest insurance services companies. Captive, or in-house self-insurance management is becoming a particularly attractive proposition with companies such as Tate & Lyle using Gibraltar as the headquarters of its company insurance business. Amongst the other established brands that are based here are InterContinental Hotels group and Dixons, the UK-based electronics retailer. According to sector representatives about 16% of all motor insurance in the UK is written in Gibraltar.

What is attracting these insurance companies to the territory are a host of the following factors:

∙Corporate Rate of Tax of 10%

∙Absence of VAT and Capital Gains Tax

∙No currency controls

∙Low operating cost base (compared with other jurisdictions such as Dublin and Bermuda)

∙The granting in 1997 of EU passporting rights under which insurers domiciled in Gibraltar as authorised to offer their services in all other EU member states

∙Solvency Requirements are the EU minimum (18% of Gross Written Premium)

∙Margins to the EU minimum levels are often not applied in the case of captive insurers because there is no third party involved

∙A very user-friendly Financial Services Commission ensures that regulation is compatible with the entrepreneurial business model

∙An ability to get regulatory decisions promptly allows Gibraltar insurers to capitalise on opportunities and market conditions before the rest of the market can adapt

∙Application, formation and licencing of an insurance company can take as little as three months

∙The cost of Licensing fees remain very competitive.

For full information on how Gibro can assist you, contact:

Nicholas Wright, Private Client Director