The head of one of Bermuda’s largest annuity reinsurance companies wants Cayman’s life insurance industry choked.

In an earnings call this month, James Belardi, the chief executive of Athene, called for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in the United States to clamp down on the “unabated” growth of the Cayman life insurance industry.

Athene was domiciled in Bermuda, but moved its holding company to the United States at the end of 2023. It still has offices locally.

According to industry publication InsuranceERM, Mr Belardi said Cayman was home to $150 billion of life reserves “supported by a fraction of the capital required by the US or Bermuda”, which he believed put the system at risk.

Martin Klein, Athene’s chief financial officer, said firms domiciled in Bermuda had lost their competitive edge, because the island had tightened its regulations.

He claimed some corporations were considering moving to Cayman where the regulatory framework is less robust and more flexible.

The article followed two this month in the Cayman Compass alleging that Bermuda had launched a lobbying campaign to scupper Cayman’s bid to gain US qualified jurisdictional status in the insurance business.

An anonymous Cayman insurance industry source told the Cayman Compass: “We are trying to stay well clear of poisoning the well for Bermuda, while they seem to have taken the gloves off.”

The piece in Cayman’s main newspaper, published on February 12, claimed that Bermuda feared a boom in Cayman’s reinsurance sector, and envied its more international business-friendly policies and relatively strong economy.

An unnamed “Bermuda insider” told the Caribbean newspaper: “Bermuda has always been worried about the Cayman Islands and that has got worse since the economy started to suffer.”

In December, the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers revealed that its member contributions to Bermuda’s economy had topped $1 billion in 2023, for the first time.

The Cayman Compass piece, written by former The Royal Gazette journalist Raymond Hainey, noted via a source that if Abir continued its work to protect Bermuda’s interests, everything would be “OK”.

Mr Hainey’s sources did not have kind words for the Bermuda Business Development Agency, saying it had “lost its way” and “did not know how to compete”.

However, another unnamed reinsurance source in Cayman played down the story from the Cayman Compass, stating that Bermuda and Cayman were after different markets.

They said Cayman’s market was predominantly North American-focused, while Bermuda’s had broader international appeal.

Gregg Mitchell, chairman of the Cayman International Reinsurance Companies Association, told Mr Hainey that his organisation did not promote its interests by comparing it to others, or position itself based on perceived advantages over other jurisdictions.

He said: “Furthermore, we find it difficult to believe that any governing, regulatory body would act in the manner described, though an individual acting in their own interests may.”

The BDA did not respond to The Royal Gazette’s request for comment, and Abir declined to comment.