The Bermuda reinsurance market is experiencing massive growth, with more than $50 million in new capital flowing into the life insurance sector since 2016, industry leaders said at the Bermuda Captive Conference yesterday.

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The surge reflects a shift towards what experts call “asset-intensive reinsurance transactions”, a fundamental change from traditional reinsurance models.

“What we've seen since 2016 has been quite a significant growth in what we call asset-intensive reinsurance transactions, where the ceding insurer based in jurisdictions like US, Europe and Asia are looking to reinsure and see both asset and liability regress and move into Bermuda insurers," explained Neha Arora, chief executive of Athora Life Re, during a panel discussion.

This transformation allows insurers to transfer assets as well as liabilities to Bermuda-based companies, freeing up capital for new business opportunities. As Ms Arora noted: “From a senior insurer's perspective, this is a legacy block business that is quite capital-intensive … we offer the senior insurer the ability to take this risk off their balance sheet so they can focus on new growth opportunities”.

The influx represents what industry experts describe as “the right kind of capital”, meaning long-term institutional investment from sovereign wealth funds and pension funds that can support the decades-long liabilities of life insurance products.

Meanwhile, outside the life insurance sector, Wednesday’s panel highlighted the reinsurance market’s maturation by calling attention to a recent major milestone.

“We're a just over $3 billion market cap insurer and reinsurer recently listed on the New York Stock Exchange about six weeks ago," said Christian Dunleavy, president and CEO of Aspen Re.

The conference is being held at the Hamilton Princess Hotel & Beach Club.