The practice of companies establishing subsidiaries to insure their own risks directly without accessing the commercial insurance market dates back more than a century. However, the captive insurance industry began to take off in the 1960s, and Bermuda set itself up as the original home for the offshore segment.
Bermuda is relaxing its rules on foreign ownership of banks, witnessed by HSBC’s recent acquisition of Bank of Bermuda. Mairi Mallon reports on changing times.Walking into one of the two main banks in Bermuda is like going back in time to England in the 1970s. The doorman knows many customers by name and long queues form every Friday as customers deposit their weekly pay cheques.