Beijing and Guernsey Move Forward on Captive Insurance Deal

Guernsey-based insurance manager Alternative Risk Management (ARM) and Beijing Airport Captive Management Consulting (BACM), China's only captive insurance consulting group, will partner to create captive insurance structures and provide captive management services for businesses in China.

BACM is backed by the Beijing Airport Economic Core Zone (BAECZ)—a key hub for China's business, industrial, and creative sectors. The joint venture between BACM and ARM comes after the March 2017 signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Guernsey Finance and the BAECZ. Guernsey Finance, the promotional agency for the island's finance sector, signed on behalf of Guernsey's finance sector.

Guernsey has signed four insurance-related MoUs with its China counterparts over the past year. In addition to the agreement between Guernsey Finance and the BAECZ, the Guernsey Financial Services Commission also signed its own MoU in March with the China Insurance Regulatory Commission. This means that the Guernsey regulator has now signed MoUs with all of China's financial services regulators.

In 2016, MoUs were agreed upon with the Chinese city of Kashgar and the China Captive Alliance, and, in the last 6 months, at least three Chinese delegations have visited the island in order to better understand the full range of Guernsey's specialist insurance, fund, private wealth, and asset management products.

ARM Managing Director Charles Scott said captives are going to be at the forefront of innovation in China's insurance market. He said, "Chinese companies with international operations and those looking at expanding overseas are considering ways to use captive vehicles for their risk management needs rather than having to insure through the commercial market."