No more free lunches

After the corporate scandals of Enron and Worldcom, there has been a renewed emphasis on corporate governance. In the Channel Island of Guernsey, Europe’s biggest captive insurance centre, a corporate governance code of conduct for licensed insurers came into force this week, making the island one of the world’s first captive domiciles to underline fully the importance of corporate governance. Mark Helyar , an advocate in the Financial Services Group at Guernsey law firm Babbe Le Pelley Tostevin , considers the consequences for corporate governance of insurance companies in Guernsey. He says that while breaches of the code are not subject to any criminal penalty the proposals do have teeth, some of them carefully embedded into the code’s enabling legislation, the Insurance Business (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law 2002. Babbe Le Pelley Tostevin, together with captive insurance company managers, Willis Management (Guernsey), will be staging seminars on the island’s new corporate governance requirements.