The country's financial services industry is looking to recapture its prominent position in the area of captive insurance. Timothy Ingraham, managing director at the Summit Insurance Company Ltd., shared with Guardian Business that in the 1970s and 1980s The Bahamas was a big player in the captive insurance market but has since lost ground. However, he believes it's an area that the sector must 'aggressively' pursue. "We lost our position when we changed our laws, so we are trying to recapture that," he explained.

While strides have been made to improve the captive insurance side of the business, Ingraham admitted that the infrastructure to be successful is not quite in place. "I think it's a market that The Bahamas should aggressively pursue and get in on the action. We will need to have captive managers in the jurisdiction, then we can market The Bahamas very heavily," noted Ingraham. "If our people went out and set up shop at the various captives conferences around the world, then they would actually attract business here."

Ingraham told Guardian Business that life insurance is another area The Bahamas needs to look because "potential benefits can be derived from it". "That alone would bring income into the economy from licensing, attorneys and auditors fees as well as acquiring local insurance professionals to work in these operations," he said. "It's not a growing economy so you will find that most insurers are simply trying to hold on to their book of business and not targeting very aggressive growth. We expect rates to remain fairly stable.

I think most of the players understand the economy at the moment." Currently Atlas Insurance Management, a leading independent insurance management firm, is operating in The Bahamas. "While they are based in the Cayman Islands, they see the potential of doing business in The Bahamas so they push The Bahamas," Ingraham added. "They have set up a captive in The Bahamas and they have 38 branches to it and that has continued to grow so that's another part of the market that we are willing to capture."

A captive insurance company insures only the risks of its parent and sister companies as its main source of business. The term has since become associated with any insurance company that sets up in a captive domicile, to take advantage of specific "captive" legislation.

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