by Rob Leadbetter, USA Risk

Where does the time go, it has already been six months since I have taken over the chairpersonship of IMAC and it seems like only last week Clayton was talking me into the position!  I must say it has been a whirlwind introduction to the inner workings of the entire IMAC Executive, sitting on just one committee over the years didn’t quite give me the appreciation for all that goes on!

That being said I believe it has also been a very productive six months and the intent of this communication is to bring everyone up to speed on what has been going on for the last six months and what we have in store for the rest of the year!

The mandate I set out for the first year of my term was pretty simple in that I didn’t want to recreate the wheel considering we had such a strong committee in previous years.  I wanted to stick to our core principles which are:

• Act as regulatory liaison with the Cayman Islands Government and Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.
• Promote the Cayman Islands as the domicile of choice for captive insurance companies.

With regard to the first, I believe we had a strong relationship already, but you can always improve and we have had several meetings and interactions with CIMA and Government on numerous subjects to date and are actively pursuing a number of areas that affect us all.  The Legislative and Regulatory committee has been very busy on this front with the passing of the new Insurance Law at the end of last year; they were instrumental in advising on the related regulations, assisting in the new PIC legislation being passed through the House as well as advising on the preliminary stages of drafting the regulations that accompany them.  They have advised Government on a number of topical issues including the Monetary Authority Fees Regulations that took all of us by surprise late last year, the related changes to business plan amendments project, FATCA, CIMA’s Corporate Governance Project, The Stamp Duty Issue, the NRRA –Dodd Frank Issue to name just a few.  We have recently sat down with the new government, both with Mr. Panton and Mr. McTaggart and are very encouraged by the conversations we have had with them.

On the second point, this is where I personally believed we could make some improvements over what we have done in the past.   One key aspect to this was admitting that we needed help and going out and getting some professional support.  With the help of the local business development firm, Fountainhead our Marketing committee has done some amazing things in the first six months of the year.  To list just a few:

• Produced a comprehensive strategic marketing strategy for the next 12 months.
• We rebranded our image with the Cayman Islands.  Clearly Better Business.  tag line going public at the RIMS conference in April with a brand new booth and supporting handouts.
• Produced the “Captive Insurance in the Cayman Islands” publication in conjunction with and graciously funded by our friends over at KPMG.
• Began a presence on various social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
• Began publishing regular industry articles on international news feeds (15 to date this year)
• Have agreed to support and co-edit what will hopefully become an annual trade magazine produced by Fountainhead.
• Agreed to exhibit and sponsor Canadian RIMS in October of this in order to show a presence in the Canadian market.
• Planning of the Annual Gala Dinner to be held in October of this year.

Our signature event every year, the Cayman Captive Forum, seems to just grow and get better every year.  With just shy of 1300 attendees last year we hope to be as successful this year and the Forum Committee has been working diligently all year in planning this monumental event!  Registration just went live this week and we already have 267 registrations to date! 

Not to be outdone, our scholarship committee has been busy securing funds for this year’s scholarship recipients.   In existence for nearly 20 years, the scholarship fund has raised almost $2 million dollars and supported 26 young Caymanians to achieve post high school education.   Come out to our social night July 11 at Side Bar to meet our 2013 recipients.

I don’t have room to run through all the accomplishments of all our committees but as you can see through six full executive meetings, numerous subcommittee meetings and a special budget meeting the first six months of 2013 has been a busy and eventful time for the IMAC Executive.  I hope to do these updates quarterly going forward and am sure will have several more accomplishments to share with you in October.

Respectfully

Rob Leadbetter

IMAC Chairperson