Mr Kelvin Wu, President of the Singapore Captive Insurance Association
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen — good morning.
1. It is my pleasure to join you today at the first Asia Pacific Captive Forum in Singapore.
Building a Strong Captive Community
2. This forum builds on the formation of the Singapore Captive Insurance Association (SCIA), which brings captive owners together to connect, share experiences, and strengthen the ecosystem.
3. SCIA joins other insurance trade associations in Singapore as part of our insurance sector, to champion, to advocate, to bridge.
4. Since its launch in 2025,
- 11 members have come on board and more are expected to join.
- The association has grown the Singapore conference last year into a more inclusive one for Asia Pacific today.
5. In some respects, this is a little overdue, considering that Singapore introduced our captive regime more than 40 years ago.
6. But it is timely, with close to 90 captive insurers writing around S$2 billion premiums
7. And more importantly, the SCIA provides a platform for a common industry voice, to navigate today’s complex operating environment and risk landscape. One which is:
- Characterised by increasing volatility, uncertainty and interconnected risks; and
- Reshaped by trends such as geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions, cyber threats, climate-related events and emerging technologies.
8. In this environment,
- How do businesses build resilience?
- How can corporates have better control of their risk financing strategies?
- And how can they protect long-term enterprise value?
9. For many organisations, captive insurance has become an important part of the answer.
- An estimated 90% of Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies use captives
[2] . - Various public sources have placed the total number of captives globally to be in the range of 7,000 to 8,000.
Evolving Role of Captives
10. Historically, captives were viewed as niche vehicles for financing difficult-to-insure risks, or reducing insurance costs.
- But they have matured through the hard markets of the 1980s and 90s, to become a mainstream component of the corporate risk management toolkit.
11. Today, the role played by captives has expanded further:
- Captives give organisations greater control and flexibility in managing risk retention.
- They improve access to reinsurance markets.
- They support data-driven risk management.
- They facilitate coverage where traditional insurance capacity may be limited.
- And perhaps most importantly, they enable organisations to take a more proactive and sophisticated approach to risk financing.
12. With resilience now a top-of-mind priority, captives are strategic business assets.
- A cyber-attack can take core systems offline for days.
- Supply chains can be disrupted by events with no connection to the business itself.
- Insurance protection for some risks, such as cybersecurity or natural catastrophe, can become very costly, or be withdrawn altogether.
- Many find that traditional insurance programmes alone are no longer sufficient to manage these risks, due to coverage limitations or rising costs.
13. Captive insurance fills this gap. Not to replace, but to complement traditional approaches. To protect what is important to enterprise value.
- The University of California used its captive to write a business interruption policy in 2018, as commercial insurers did not provide the coverage, or had added exclusions. When international study programmes were disrupted during COVID-19, the university had its losses covered by its captive. This is an example that captives can provide tailored coverage and certainty.
- More recently, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, used its captive insurer to access the catastrophe bond market for earthquake protection. This goes beyond just underwriting, to helping corporates tap alternative capital for risk protection, and manage large, complex risks more efficiently.
14. And echoing what Kelvin said earlier, this is particularly relevant for companies headquartered or operating in Asia Pacific – a region with strong economic growth and rapidly internationalising businesses. With growth and increased activity comes greater exposure to complex risks. Yet only 5 to 6% of global captives are owned by Asian parents.
15. This brings me to Singapore - a captive insurance domicile where organisations have confidence in the regulatory quality, political and economic stability, and access to deep insurance and reinsurance markets and expertise.
- It takes on average no more than 3 months to set up a captive insurer today.
- Our regulatory requirements for captives are streamlined and risk-proportionate. Our rules are clear and simple to comply with.
- Captive owners can access specialised knowledge and services easily. Underwriters, brokers, actuaries, and legal expertise needed to run a captive are all in a single place.
16. But we are not stopping here. We want to make it even easier and cheaper for companies to manage their own risks. So that we can make captive solutions available to more companies, not just the large, sophisticated multinationals.
17. MAS therefore plans to consult on a new corporate structure to support this: the Protected Cell Company, or PCC.
- A PCC operates as a single legal entity comprising a central “Core” and one or more “Cells”. The assets and liabilities of each Cell are legally segregated from those of other Cells and the Core.
18. A PCC combines flexibility and efficiency – separating risks where needed, while reducing set-up and operating costs.
- PCCs enable smaller to mid-sized corporates to access “rent-a-captive” solutions. Individual firms can run their own risk programmes in their own segregated cells, and reach the reinsurance market directly. At the same time, they can rely on a sponsor at the Core for administration and captive management services.
- For larger corporates, PCCs allow risk coverage within the group to be segregated across business lines or geographies, without having to set up multiple special purpose vehicles.
- A PCC can also support other insurance solutions such as Insurance-linked securities (ILS). The use of PCCs allows ILS sponsors to transfer risks to capital markets in a shorter time and more efficiently.
19. We invite you to share your views on the proposed features, and work with us to shape the new framework when the public consultation is launched.
Building Talent Pipeline
20. As we strengthen infrastructure support for captives, we are also developing capabilities for the next phase of growth.
- MAS works closely with partners such as the Singapore College of Insurance (SCI) and the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) to build talent for the financial sector. Financial institutions can get support for hiring and training, while finance professionals can tap on funding for skills and career development, from various government agencies.
21. For the insurance sector, SCI offers a comprehensive set of initiatives – from student outreach, internships and management associate programmes to professional certifications, leadership development and AI-enabled learning.
- Captive owners can access bespoke courses for employees to upskill and deepen expertise in risk management. Just last week, SCI introduced a new programme in Alternative Risk Transfer for Employee Benefits, to support greater industry demand for employee benefit financing through captive solutions and risk pooling.
- The SCIA and our conference today also allow professionals to increase market awareness and gain new insights to relevant trends and developments.
22. We encourage the industry to tap on these resources to support your talent needs. Collectively, we can deepen the talent pool and strengthen Singapore’s proposition as an insurance and captive hub.
Closing
23. As corporates in the region scale and globalise, captives will grow in importance as enablers of resilience and growth.
24. MAS will support the growth of the Singapore captive industry through progressive frameworks, strong partnerships and a focus on talent development. We also look forward to engaging with the SCIA to support the captive community in Singapore, and across the region.
25. Thank you, and I wish you a good conference ahead.
[1] MAS Insurance Statistics 2024.
[2] Barclays – Captive Insurance: A Strategic Edge in an Expensive Insurance Market, 25 July 2025
[3] Swiss Re Insights Sep 2022 – Appetite for captives increasing in Asian markets
