Bermuda tightens reinsurance regs, sees a decline in new entrants

Bermuda saw a decline in new life and annuity reinsurance entrants during 2025, but the country remains the dominant offshore hub for reinsurers.

The decline coincides with tougher new regulations from the Bermuda Monetary Authority, noted S&P Global Market Intelligence in a recent analysis.

The BMA's new rules, effective January 2026, demand detailed asset and liability disclosures, enhancing market confidence, S&P concluded. The introduction of a 15% corporate tax aligns Bermuda with global tax norms while maintaining its competitive edge.

“Generally speaking, there's a significant new layer of transparency that is meant to sort of demonstrate and project to the world that you can have confidence in the BMA and Bermuda as a domicile,” explained Tim Zawacki, insurance sector strategist with S&P Global.

Offshore reinsurance gives life insurers more options to invest their capital, with access to increased scale and new business volumes. Bermuda's life and annuity reinsurance market has seen a surge in concentration, particularly as a destination for U.S. liabilities. As of year-end 2024, Bermuda-based reinsurers held more than $900 billion in U.S. liabilities.

Bermuda a popular market

Bermuda accounts for 84% of all U.S. life and annuity reserves ceded to non-U.S. jurisdictions. Reserves ceded to Bermuda reached 38% of the total $2.4 trillion ceded by U.S. life insurers, according to ALIRT Research, up significantly from 26% in 2020.

“Insurers are increasingly using affiliated structures to transfer legacy liabilities and fund growth, particularly in fixed and indexed annuities,” S&P Global wrote. “Bermuda's flexible approach to discount rates, more favorable than U.S. statutory rates, makes it a preferred jurisdiction for reinsurance placements.”

The BMA has responded to the new business influx. Some of the new regulatory requirements include: updated guidance requiring prior regulatory approval for new long-term block reinsurance deals to enhance transparency and cross-border collaboration, and more extensive documentation and asset modeling.

On the latter, reinsurers must now project asset market values explicitly and include transaction costs in their projection periods.

“I think in several cases, the rules are stricter than what reinsurers would see in their U.S. domiciliary states,” Zawacki said. “For example, the rule around obtaining approval for investing in affiliated investments."

Regulators generally define an affiliated investment as any asset held by an insurer or reinsurer where the underlying economic exposure is linked to an entity within the same corporate group or that shares common control.

Critics argue that some gigantic companies are putting policyholders at risk by claiming affiliated investments in risky asset classes as backing for life and annuity reserves.

'Related-party' investments

U.S. regulators have differing definitions of affiliated investments, Zawacki said, noting the National Association of Insurance Commissioners even has a affiliated-light category known as “related-party investments.”

While "affiliated investments" usually refer to direct subsidiaries or parents, "related party" is a wider net designed to catch more subtle forms of influence, particularly those used in private equity-backed insurance. In Bermuda, more of those investments are simply going to fall under the “affiliated” category.

“The notion that Bermuda is requiring explicit approval for investing in those kinds of assets is noteworthy,” Zawacki said.

Evolving statutory and reporting requirements “may lead cedants to explore strategic alternatives for reinsuring business, including using reinsurers in other offshore domiciles like the Cayman Islands,” the S&P Global report found.

But, for now, Bermuda remains king of the offshore reinsurers.

Bermuda's market “continues to diversify, maintaining its position as a leading captive domicile and expanding its reach through the insurance-linked securities sector,” S&P concluded.

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InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.