Northern Marianas mulls captive insurance law
A new captive domicile is about to emerge on isolated islands in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.
A Bill has been introduced in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to establish captive insurance in the US jurisdiction.
The senator Celina Babauta is backing the initiative, saying that it would help diversify the economy of the island chain, which has historically been dependent on tourism.
“This legislation, if marketed aggressively and properly, will help attract reputable multimillion-dollar investors to the CNMI and benefit the communities of Saipan, Tinian and Rota,” Babauta was quoted as saying in The Saipan Tribune.
Saipan, Tinian and Rota are the three main inhabited islands of the CNMI.
The CNMI is a self-governing commonwealth within the US, with high degree of autonomy in terms of taxation and legislation.
It is situated closer to Asia than it is to the mainland US and is a little more than 3 hours from Tokyo by air.
Under the proposed law, a captive would have to be licensed by the Commissioner of Insurance, maintain a headquarters in the commonwealth and employ a resident agent.
Guam, which is a US territory near the CNMI, has a captive law, but according to local press reports, no Guam captives have been created. Business Insurance cited three to the year end 2021.
The Federated States of Micronesia, an independent country south of Guam and the CNMI, has had a captive programme since 2006 and has managed to attract captives formed by Japanese companies.
The FSM Captive Insurance Council counts a number of well-known industry names among its members, such as AIG Insurance Management Services, Allianz Fire and Marine Insurance Japan and Aon Japan.
Official recognition of CNMI, would bring to nearly 80 the number of recognised captive domiciles.
According to recent figures published by Allianz, Bermuda hosts the most captive by far, at 670 in total. It is closely followed by a number of US jurisdictions, including Vermont (620), Utah (384) and Delaware (313).
Hawaii, which is the closest US state to the CNMI, has 251 captives.
Need to
Know
2. Please respect the use of this community forum and its users.
3. Any poster that insults, threatens or verbally abuses another member, uses defamatory language, or deliberately disrupts discussions will be banned.
4. Users who violate the Terms of Service or any commenting rules will be banned.
5. Please stay on topic. "Trolling" to incite emotional responses and disrupt conversations will be deleted.
6. To understand further what is and isn't allowed and the actions we may take, please read our Terms of Service
