CAPTIVE INSIGHT
REGULATION
IN CAYMAN
ON THE RECORD
WITH CIMA
To understand how Cayman’s financial regulatory body CIMA
is balancing its supervisory role while supporting industry
efforts to broaden the international insurance industry in
the Cayman Islands, Captive Insight spoke with Ruwan
Jayasekera, Head of CIMA’s Insurance Supervision Division.
Ruwan Jayasekera: One of the key pillars and a precondition
for effective insurance supervision is the supervisors’ indepth
knowledge of its licensees and their cross-border
transactions. Given Cayman’s position as the world’s
second largest captive domicile with approximately 700
international insurers with varying degrees of sophistication,
the supervisors’ practical and relevant professional
experience is a key precondition to have an effective, robust
yet pragmatic insurance supervisory framework. Even
though vast majority of the Cayman-based insurers conduct
transactions with the insurers and policyholders in the
United States of America, Cayman insurers and reinsurers
offer protection to policyholders in many countries around
the world. Therefore, regulators within the Cayman Islands
are also required to continuously keep on top of the global
insurance industry and regulatory developments and trends.
Traditionally, the global insurance industry has been slow
to change. However, in the last decade or so, innovations in
technology and processes have transformed, or beginning to
transform, the business functions of the insurance industry.