The Cayman Islands has thrown down the gauntlet to Bermuda stating that they are actively looking to attract the reinsurance industry away from Bermuda with immigration incentives and a targeted marketing campaign focusing on the Island’s reinsurers.This according to the Cayman’s Premier McKeeva Bush who announced the British Territory’s plan at the Cayman Captive Forum last week, which drew attendance of 1,200 delegates.According to a report in the Cayman Free Press, incentives include 10-year work permits for senior executives who hold positions of vice-president or higher, flat or reduced work permit fees and a waiver for normal work permit application requirements.Premier Bush also called for direct one-on-one marketing to reinsurance CEOs and senior executives as well as to law firms both in New York and in “other financial centres” to bestow the benefits of domiciling in Cayman over Bermuda.“Anecdotal evidence from the industry suggests that, as a jurisdiction, Cayman has several advantages that we can capitalise on to attract greater interest from reinsurance companies,” Premier Bush said at the conference.The article also states that the Cayman Islands have always been keen on attracting reinsurance companies to their jurisdiction but until now, there haven’t been any “concrete immigration incentives to attract the industry”.Currently Cayman does not levy income, payroll, property or corporate taxes and allows expatriate workers the opportunity to own property. The article also states that “labour costs in the reinsurance industry are also lower than in Bermuda”.Chairman of the Insurance Managers Association of Cayman, Clayton Price, welcomed the initiative and stated that while Bermuda might be geographically more desirable, the Cayman government is intent on making it easier for companies to set up shop there instead of in Bermuda.“Bermuda’s proximity to financial centres such as New York and London with daily direct flights to each also gives Bermuda a bit of a geographic edge,” he said. “However the Cayman Islands Government’s vision to implement ways to cut through bureaucratic red tape to facilitate business needs plus the quality of life should greatly assist in attracting commercial reinsurers.”Unlike Bermuda, Cayman is not seeking third-party equivalence with Solvency II, an enhanced regulatory regime coming into effect in 2013 in the European Union, which, according to the Cayman Free Press, “could be attractive to certain reinsurers that are looking for a domicile with a lower capital threshold”.