Back in 2006, the Bermuda Monetary Authority had just 37 staff, overseeing the island’s entire financial sector, including an international re/insurance sector growing fast with a wave of post-Hurricane Katrina start-ups.

The expansion of the industry was outpacing the island’s capacity to regulate it credibly. It was a pivotal moment in Bermuda’s international business history and the urgency was captured by Evan Greenberg, then the chief executive officer of Ace, and now leading Chubb, the world’s largest property-and-casualty insurer.

Speaking in March 2007, Mr Greenberg said the industry needed world-class regulation to befit the island’s significant role in the global insurance industry.

Investors feared “the capricious and potentially damaging actions of politicians who perceive Bermuda as a destination where companies are allowed to game the tax system or where regulation is light”, Mr Greenberg said.

To counter that threat would require “a strong and enlightened regulatory environment … one that sets an example of excellence globally” that would “help validate the legitimacy of Bermuda and ensure its prosperity for many years to come”.

He called for a beefed-up BMA, with more staff and industry expertise, led by a world-class CEO, separation of private-sector involvement in regulation, and adoption of a framework of standards aligned with those adopted by major regulators, such as the Solvency II regime in the European Union.

Not everyone agreed with him at the time, and many were wary of how stronger oversight would affect Bermuda’s entrepreneurial marketplace. But today Mr Greenberg’s comments look prescient.

Most of what he proposed has come to pass. As of year-end 2024, the BMA employed 302 people, including specialists drawn from all over the world. Its regulatory regime is regarded as the equal of the world’s best — it has Solvency II third-country equivalence from the European Union and has qualified and reciprocal jurisdiction status from the United States.

The Bermuda market’s credibility has come far and rarely can this have been more apparent than last week, when global regulators and industry leaders came to Hamilton for the Abir Risk Forum and the 2026 BMA Forum.

The shift in how Bermuda is viewed by the rest of the world was evident in the language used by some of the high-profile speakers.

Scott White, president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners said he viewed relations between the NAIC, the US standard-setting body, and the BMA, as the “gold standard” of different jurisdictions working together with a mutual interest. And he stressed the important role of the island’s reinsurers, providing much needed capacity to US insurers, supporting the availability and affordability of coverage.

Petra Hielkema, chairwoman of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, the EU insurance regulator, compared the BMA’s Solvency II equivalence to a marriage whose vows keep being renewed. The BMA celebrates ten years of Solvency II equivalence this year.

Andrew Mais, a former president of the NAIC, said at the conference that he was seeing an alignment between regulators in Bermuda, the EU and the US, with “mutual support for responsible and principles-based innovation”.

Trust in Bermuda’s regulatory standards translates into trust in Bermuda reinsurers’ ability to deliver on their promise to pay. And as Mr Greenberg correctly predicted, world-class standards of regulation has strengthened the Bermuda market and supported its continuing growth.

Also apparent at the conferences was regulators’ concern over the multiple “protection gaps” that exist in an interconnected and riskier world, as humanity faces the challenges of climate change, an ageing population, escalating cyber risk and mounting geopolitical tensions.

Clement Cheung, CEO of the Insurance Authority of Hong Kong, said it best when he was talking about the Asia-Pacific region’s 88 per cent natural catastrophe protection gap — meaning only 12 per cent of losses are covered by insurance — and its need for coverage of retirement income as life expectancy grows.

“These protection gaps are an opportunity for the industry, but they are a responsibility for the regulator,” Mr Cheung said. “What role insurance can play to mitigate or share that responsibility is a dimension that we have to explore and leverage, seeking complementary strengths and synergies.”

The interaction between regulators and the industry that Mr Cheung envisages, to help provide solutions to society’s biggest problems, has been a feature of the Bermuda market for many years.

Perhaps regulators elsewhere are now seeing the value of that kind of open dialogue and seeing from Bermuda’s example that it can be done without diminishing prudent oversight.

Mr Cheung said as much in his story of trying to build an insurance-linked securities market in Hong Kong.

And Sir Charles Roxburgh, chairman of the Lloyd’s of London market was explicit in describing how Britain had learnt from Bermuda. Sir Charles described the BMA, alongside the Monetary Authority of Singapore, as “two of the world’s leading regulators” that proved how a jurisdiction can have high prudential standards and still welcome business and innovation.

That model, he argued, directly influenced Britain’s decision to give its regulators, namely the Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority, a new secondary objective for growth and competitiveness.

Mark Cloutier, chairman of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers and chairman of Aspen, suggested in his closing remarks at the Abir Risk Forum that something unusual was happening.

“From my perspective, it was really interesting to hear the alignment between the industry participants and the regulators, the people that oversee our industry,” Mr Cloutier said. “This is a moment in time that I haven't experienced in terms of the alignment over the issues that we're confronting, and where we have to go, and I think that bodes well for our ability to solve some of these issues — as complex as they are.”

Given that Mr Cloutier has worked in the industry for about five decades, those comments are especially telling.

Bermuda’s reputation as a global re/insurance hub is arguably stronger than it’s ever been, certainly among regulators who understand the business. However reputation built up over decades can disappear rapidly with one wrong step.

If there was a warning sign during the conferences, it relates to the trend of increasing investment in private credit by some reinsurers, particularly those in the life sector affiliated with private equity firms who oversee their assets.

While these investments are generating the higher returns needed to narrow the retirement income protection gap around the world, they also come with reduced transparency and liquidity, since they are not publicly traded. This was a topic of much conversation.

Ms Hielkema warned reinsurers to “be ready for more visibility”. On a panel at the 2026 BMA Forum, she added: “More and more the insurance industry is involved in alternative investments that trigger a lot of attention from supervisors, and that means there will be a lot more need for convincing, sometimes even other regulators, that what is happening in the industry is controlled, is managed and is still prudent and in the interest of consumers. It’s happening and it’s going to be more so.”

The BMA has been proactive in improving transparency, and has conducted a stress test for the reinsurers in question, modelling 2008-style credit crisis conditions. Such continuing vigilance will be key to ensuring Bermuda keeps its hard-earned credibility as the place to go for solutions to the world’s biggest risks.