Improved regulation can attract global entities, says Cummins

Enhanced regulations is one of the ways Barbados can improve its attractiveness as a global business domicile.

Minister of Energy and Business Development Senator Lisa Cummins made that point yesterday while noting that the island “remains one of the top jurisdictions in the world . . . in particular for . . . the captive insurance industry”.

She was leading off debate on the Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which was later passed by the Senate.

The legislation amended the Insurance Act “to enhance statutory fund enhancements and to make provision for a risk based capital and insolvency regime” under the purview of the Financial Services Commission (FSC).

“Barbados remains one of the top countries, in the top ten in the world for captives,” she said.

Cummins also said the objective was for Barbados to keep the existing businesses, attract new ones, which would boost corporation taxes “which then have a run-on effect and a benefit directly to Barbadians”.

“It is the attraction of businesses coming to domicile in Barbados, businesses paying taxes in Barbados, in particular corporation taxes . . . that then allow the Government to be able to earn the revenue, to invest in social services, invest in education, to invest in health care, to invest in people,” she said.

Insurance industry

“And so changing and updating and reforming our regulatory regime in a way that allows Barbados then to be an attractive jurisdiction to the insurance industry, including, but not limited to the captive insurance industry, is a part of

the development . . . trajectory of Barbados, and it is on this basis that these amendments to bring Barbados into alignment with international best practice standards.”

Cummins, who has responsibility for the international business sector, said the amendment would “allow for the insurance sector to be in a position where it moves from functioning in a static way to a way that then becomes more intuitive”.

She noted that this would allow the FSC to “identify what risks are of a given action and a given activity”.

“Risk assessment then becomes the second step, assessing what to do about the initial risk that you have identified, risk control measures, then looking at how you’re going to mitigate against those risks,” Cummins explained.

“And then . . . looking at ensuring that continuous monitoring and review is taking place.”

She said this was important because “risk has evolved, and risk assessments have evolved, and you have to be in a position to insure for those risks and to look at the capital base of a given institution, in this instance a given insurance company, to be able to protect the industry moving forward”.

“So the proposed amendments are meant to bring the commission’s regulatory framework in alignment with internationally accepted standards and best practices for supervision.” (SC)

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