The Insurer TV: Bermuda Premier pledges to enhance London collaboration

Bermuda and London can further enhance their relationship as complementary markets with the island keen to provide additional capacity to the London market, according to Premier David Burt.

In an in-depth interview with The Insurer TV, Burt highlighted the current prosperity of Bermuda’s international (re)insurance market, revealing employment grew by 10 percent in the sector during the pandemic.

“We are continuing to see growth in insurance with new companies setting up in Bermuda, including an expansion in the number of specialty insurers and long-term insurers,” he said.

Burt said the strength and resilience of the Bermudian (re)insurance sector meant it was able to provide additional capacity to the London market, as well as maintaining its position at the forefront of innovation for new and emerging risks.

“What’s important is that people know we do not view London as our competitor in the insurance market, we view it as complementary – London cannot survive without Bermuda and Bermuda cannot survive without London,” he told The Insurer TV.

Burt said the collaboration works “incredibly well”.

“The Bermuda market is growing, the London market is growing and we continue to work together very well,” he said.

“Working together to enhance collaboration between these two very important centres of insurance bodes best for both markets, as well as for policyholders at a time when it is important to keep prices reasonable.”

Climate focus

Burt was speaking to The Insurer TV as part of a trade delegation to the UK, which as well as “spreading the word” about the island’s continued insurance capabilities also focused on the diversification of its economy into areas such as digital finance and climate risk finance.

“Our traditional P&C sector has been in the business of climate risk finance for a long time but that has been on the side of rebuilding after catastrophes,” he said.

Burt said the government was now focusing on ensuring it is a centre for the deployment of capital to ensure that countries, states and cities can become more resilient to climate change, with the shift to making investments up front likely to have the ultimate knock-on effect of lower claims payouts for insurers.

The Bermuda premier said the island was leading by example, both in terms of creating an appropriate regulatory environment and ensuring it takes steps to improve the sustainability of its own energy and transport networks.

“We have set a very aggressive target to reduce our fossil fuel use by 85 percent from 2019 levels to 2035,” he said.

“As a small island state that is being impacted by climate change, we want to show that we are doing our bit to address the challenge.”

During the full video, Premier Burt addressed: