The Bermuda Monetary Authority has outlined a series of supervisory changes planned for 2026. The authority forecasts a year focused on implementation and regulatory consolidation across banking, insurance and financial services.

For long-term insurers, the authority plans to tighten disclosure rules on investments in the commercial long-term market, and issue more guidance on the prudent person regime, which requires fiduciaries such as trustees or guardians to act with the intelligence and diligence they would if they were managing their own affairs, not for speculation.

The new guidance comes as the United States, with more and more liabilities ceded offshore, has adopted a new actuarial rule tightening oversight of asset-intensive life reinsurance.

Bermuda is the world’s largest centre for offshore life and annuity reinsurance, with more than $900 billion in American liabilities held by Bermudian-based reinsurers, more than 80 per cent of the offshore total.

Meanwhile, in the banking sector, the BMA is preparing to put in a place a new Operational Resilience and Outsourcing Code under the Banks and Deposit Companies Act 1999. The framework will strengthen rules for third-party risk management, outsourcing and business continuity, the plan said.

The authority also signalled a shift towards more supervision of climate risks and their “impact on insurers’ risk management, as well as responsible solutions for global weather and other catastrophe-related protection gaps”.

Planned work includes a discussion paper on climate finance risks, alongside use of catastrophe modelling and stress-testing to assess insurers’ exposure to physical and transition risks.

The BMA said it would publish the results of its embedded supervision pilot in 2026, setting out next steps on data, assurance and reporting standards.

The changes come as Bermuda prepares for its next mutual evaluation by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, expected to begin in mid-2026 and designed to assess how well the island is combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

The review will assess how recent reforms operate in practice. That includes the new Beneficial Ownership Act and proposed amendments to the Proceeds of Crime framework, at a time when international bodies are placing more emphasis on asset recovery, enforcement and co-operation between countries.