CAPTIVES FLOCKING TO BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS

The British Virgin Islands (BVI), which has been promoting its suitability as a domicile for captive insurers, said yesterday that the number of captives licensed in the territory increased by nearly 25% in 2003, with 67 new formations. However, the net gain was likely to be less, but the BVI Financial Services Commission Insurance Division did not release details on how many captives had been closed. The commission claimed that the BVI was now the fourth-most popular captive offshore domicile after Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Guernsey. The BVI government recently passed a Business Companies Act that enabled the creation of segregated portfolio companies, known in most of the insurance world as protected cell companies.