Kramer: Talent pool is the reason insurance market exists here

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Industry talent is what enables Bermuda to have an international insurance market of global renown — and without that intellectual capital the market would not exist.

That is the view of industry veteran Don Kramer, expressed during a question-and-answer session at the Bermuda captive Conference yesterday.

Mr Kramer, who has set up several reinsurance companies including Ariel Re, was asked why he believed Bermuda was a better insurance jurisdiction than say, Guernsey.

“Bermuda has done a good job in several areas,” Mr Kramer said. “One issue is its proximity to the US and direct access to the UK.

“But what really makes it is the talent that’s here. Without that the market would not exist.”

The industry has done a good job of training and developing a large number of Bermudians, meaning there was a substantial local population who “really understand the business”.

That was a crucial strength for Bermuda, he said, as many functions, such as accounting, could be performed remotely and therefore outsourced to a cheaper location. But the presence of the insurance market itself was a result of the concentration of industry talent on the Island.

“Bermuda is a place where a broker can place $1 billion of exposure within two or three square miles in Hamilton,” Mr Kramer said.

Bermuda’s reputation as a financial centre had been bolstered by the signing of more than 30 tax information exchange agreements with other countries, he added. And he argued that the “Bermuda loophole” that some American lawmakers objected to had paid handsome dividends to the US in the form of billions of dollars of catastrophe claims after events like the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina.

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