Good fortune has shone on Bermuda during the most recent spate of mergers and acquisitions in the insurance industry, assisted by the island’s self-created robustness and innovation.

But the island must remain on its toes to ensure it stays competitive, relevant and a place where technologies such as those associated with insurtech and fintech can thrive.

Those were among discussion points raised by business leader Paul Scope and David Burt during a fireside chat at ILS Convergence 2018.

Mr Scope, chairman of both the Bermuda Business Development Agency and Willis Towers Watson Bermuda, said talk about insurtech and fintech has moved to the action stage.

Referring to the combining of insurance and reinsurance with blockchain, insurtech and fintech, as “a marriage made in heaven”, he said Bermuda was well suited to be part of the changes taking place.

“I’m seeing people action it. It is at the boardroom level now. Everyone is talking about getting this done,” he said.

The Premier also mentioned the importance of dealing with other challenges, such as the European Union’s concerns surrounding noncooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes — pointing out that “anyone who knows Bermuda knows that the one thing we are not is a noncooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes”.

Mr Burt spoke about the digital asset sector and said Bermuda was the first country to pass a full suite of legislation and regulations to protect consumers and the island’s reputation.

Explaining the vision for Bermuda regarding new technologies, he said he wants the entire country be an incubator and accelerator for innovations.

He said there are very few places in the world “where you can deploy a suite of things — whether on the government side or private sector side — in a controlled environment, such as Bermuda, to demonstrate how that can work and then take those into larger environments”.

That is the opportunity for Bermuda, Mr Burt said, explaining that companies are setting up on the island and making investments because “they realise this is a unique environment where they can test their products and services, build them here, have the intellectual property here and then export those services to the rest of the world”.

He added: “Bermuda has never been a quantity player, it has always been an issue of quality. We want to make sure we have the quality companies here.

He said one of the first companies that has applied through the Bermuda Monetary Authority is a very large exchange geared towards institutional business rather than retail.

Mr Burt said that was the type of player “we want to see come into this market. Bermuda can play that role”.

The fireside discussion was moderated by Kathleen Faries, head of Bermuda for Tokio Millennium Re. She asked how the island can ensure it stays relevant in the face of competition from other jurisdictions and outside pressure.

Mr Scope said: “We have been fortunate and been on the right side of the M&As. I hope our luck continues with that, but it is not just luck, it is because we have reached the stage of maturity and development where we have a robust infrastructure and we are still very attractive and relevant to capital growth, and obviously we still have the speed to market that got us in this position to start with.”

The Premier stressed the importance of innovating to ensure Bermuda’s market is not supplanted by another jurisdiction that has the speed to market, reputation and technology that allows it to deliver more efficiently.

“Government plays a role and that is why we have been committed to making sure the business environment here is as good as possible,” he said, mentioning that most medium to large employers “if they hire more persons in Bermuda, are not going to be paying more payroll tax. That came into play in July. We want to make the avenues for growth inside the economy”.

Turning to outside pressures, he said the island managed to innovate and navigate to deal with the challenges presented by US tax reform last year.

“Right now we have other challenges with the European Union and their listing process of noncooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes,” he said.

“Anyone who knows Bermuda knows that the one thing we are not is a noncooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.

“When I travel to European capitals they recognise that Bermuda is a leader in this space, and they recognise that Bermuda has always been a different animal. We are about substance, the insurance industry proves that; the fintech industry will prove that. We are about substance and we have to make sure that we make it clear across various European capitals.”

With Britain due to exit the EU at the end of March, Bermuda is setting up a permanent office in Brussels so that it can interact directly with the EU leaders and policymakers.

Mr Burt said there were people in Europe who “don’t know about our leadership in transparency and international services — that we were one of the first countries to implement country-by-country reporting”.

He added: “Is there a challenge? Absolutely. But as we have seen on numerous occasions, the Bermuda market will innovate and respond and work together collectively and meet those threats.

“I’m certain that when the final decision is made by the European Union, Bermuda will be regarded as what it is now — that is a co-operative jurisdiction when it comes to tax purposes.”

The matter of falling business confidence was aired after the 2018 Bermuda Business Confidence Index, released last week, showed a fall from 105.5 points in 2016 to 86.4 points this year. The index benchmark of 100 was set in 2014.

However, Mr Scope said: “I’ve never been more confident in the four decades that I have been here of where we are in the business sector.”

Mr Burt noted a comment in the local media that said he did not reach out to the business community. He said: “Well, there are certain people who would say I probably do it too much — at meetings, speaking at conferences, attending receptions.

“It is important that we keep that up. The outreach is there, but a lot of times there are things that go missing. One thing that you can always do if you are having challenges with business in Bermuda, reach out to me.”

He gave out his Government e-mail address and said: “The only way we can fix problems is if we know the problems exist.

“I encourage persons to not only discuss problems among themselves but to discuss the challenges with us, because there are things I have got from that directly that have allowed me to fix issues for the benefit of Bermuda.

“The only way that we are going to continue to have the success that we have had is to work together to achieve it.”

The two-day conference at the Hamilton Princess concludes today.