Find Insurance and Reinsurance expertise in Barbados
The insurance sector in Barbados is dichotomous with a local onshore sector and an international offshore sector. In the local insurance sector, there was a 70% to 30% aggregate split of general insurance to life assurance premium in 2006, and overall premiums totalled 10% of GDP. The high level of insurance penetration has led many local operators to look beyond Barbados for further growth. Local insurance operators include the Insurance Corporation of Barbados, Sagicor Financial Corporation and CLICO. International insurance companies on the island are licensed under the Exempt Insurance Act, which exempts them from tax (trading completely offshore), or as ‘qualifying insurance companies’ under the Insurance Act, which entitles them to extremely low tax rates, thus allowing them to also take up to 10% of their business from Barbados. The Supervisor of Insurance and Pensions (SOIP) is the sector regulator.