Details about the new so-called Captive Insurance Business Rules 2011 and Insurance Mediation Business Rules 2011 may be found on the QFCRA’s website, www.qfcra.com.
The new insurance regulatory frameworks, applying to captive insurers, captive managers and insurance intermediaries, will take effect on Friday.
According to the QFCRA, “they have been designed to support the development of Qatar as a regional centre for captive insurance”.
The new insurance regimes follow the implementation by the QFCRA of a new regulatory regime for asset management in the Qatar Financial Centre, which took effect in January.
As reported in the February issue of International Adviser magazine, Qatar has taken a strategic decision to target three areas of financial services — asset management, captive insurance and reinsurance — in order to avoid competing head-on with regional rivals like Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain in a broad range of sectors.
A ‘captive’ insurer is one that has been created or is owned by an industrial, commercial or financial group for the purpose of insuring risks emanating from its parent company or group. As such, captives are part of the wider ‘self insurance’ industry, and are one of many financial vehicles in the risk management sector.
Captives present a number of benefits to those who use them by compensating for coverage gaps in the insurance market.
Timely introduction
The implementation of the new insurance rules comes at a time when companies in Qatar and the region that are involved in major capital projects are increasing their focus on more effective and efficient risk management strategies, and exploring the use of captive insurers as a means of better controlling risks and insurance costs, according to Michael Ryan, deputy chief executive of the regulator.
After football’s governing body, Fifa, decided to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, developers from around the world have been bidding for the right to build the many stadiums, hotels, highways, bridges and train lines that are expected to be needed.
"Our new regime has benefitted from extensive consultation with global captive insurance managers, and that consultation process has helped us to ensure that the new framework meets international standards and provides a strong foundation for the successful development of a captive and reinsurance market in Qatar," Ryan added.
