- Domiciles
- Bermuda
Domicile · Caribbean
Bermuda.
Bermuda is the group's risk-transfer domicile. IGUAKO Capital (Bermuda) Ltd. was registered in 2021, and Cedar Wharf Re Ltd., its collateralised reinsurer, wrote its first treaty in the same year. The jurisdiction was chosen because the group originates in industries where the largest loss is biological rather than financial: a disease event in a herd, a mass mortality in a sea pen, a failed harvest. Bermuda has a long-established market for carrying such risks and a regime that lets a group insure its own exposures through a properly capitalised vehicle.
- People in Hamilton
- 6
- Risk-transfer programmes in force
- 11
- Gross limit reinsured
- US$64 million, of which US$18 million retained
- Client portfolio attributed
- US$22 million
- Local entity
- IGUAKO Capital (Bermuda) Ltd.
- Entity type
- Exempted company
- Role
- Insurance-linked and reinsurance vehicles
- City
- Hamilton
- Currency
- Bermudian dollar (BMD), at par with the US dollar; the vehicles account in US dollars
- Time zone
- Atlantic Time (UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer)
- Languages
- English
- Region
- Caribbean
Presence
Office at Level 4, Cedar Wharf House, Hamilton: six people, four of them actuaries or capital modellers, led by Gideon Falkenrath-Oyibo, Head of Office.
Why this domicile
- A mature market for reinsurance and insurance-linked securities with a regime designed for collateralised and special purpose vehicles.
- Regulatory recognition of the jurisdiction's insurance supervision in the markets where the group's reinsurers and investors are based.
- Actuarial and capital-modelling talent available locally, so that four of six people in the office are specialists.
- The Bermudian dollar trades at par with the US dollar, in which every treaty and note is written.
The vehicles answer the fourth underwriting test, the loss the group is prepared to accept. For each origination position the retained layer is fixed in advance, collateralised from the proprietary balance sheet and held in Cedar Wharf Re Ltd. Risk above that layer is ceded under annual treaties to a panel of four reinsurers led by Flatts Inlet Reinsurance of Hamilton. At 30 June 2026 eleven programmes were in force with a gross limit of US$64 million, of which US$18 million is retained and fully collateralised. The Risk & Valuation Committee reviews the reserving each quarter.
IGUAKO Biological Risk Transfer Ltd., a special purpose insurer registered in 2023, issues insurance-linked notes to institutional investors who wish to hold biological risk as an asset. Two such issues were outstanding at 30 June 2026 and account for the US$22 million of client portfolio attributed to Bermuda and for two of the six portfolio positions booked in the Caribbean region. Hamilton also holds US$52 million of cash and eligible securities pledged as collateral against the structured credit instruments arranged at Water Street Chambers in New York, reconciled each day to the treasury ledger in George Town.
Halvard Brennan-Osei, Independent Director and a former reinsurance executive, is resident in Hamilton and chairs the local boards of the three Bermuda entities. Each board meets four times a year on the island with a resident majority. The 2026 phase of Programme Latitude brings the collateral accounts under the Latitude Treasury (Cayman) Ltd. daily cycle, but reserving, treaty placement and the loss models stay in Hamilton, where the people who understand them work.
Services booked here
- Collateralised reinsurance of biological and agricultural risk retained in origination positions
- Special purpose insurance vehicles for livestock mortality, aquaculture biomass loss and crop failure
- Actuarial reserving and capital modelling for the Risk & Valuation Committee
- Collateral custody for the structured credit programmes arranged in New York
- Annual treaty placement with a panel of reinsurers led by Flatts Inlet Reinsurance
Local entities
The register.
| Entity | Purpose |
|---|---|
| IGUAKO Capital (Bermuda) Ltd. | Holding company for the Bermuda vehicles, exempted company, 2021 |
| Cedar Wharf Re Ltd. | Collateralised reinsurer for biological and agricultural risk, 2021 |
| IGUAKO Biological Risk Transfer Ltd. | Special purpose insurer issuing insurance-linked notes to institutional investors, 2023 |
Regulatory approach
Cedar Wharf Re Ltd. is registered with the local insurance supervisor in the class reserved for collateralised insurers whose policyholders are affiliated entities, and IGUAKO Biological Risk Transfer Ltd. is registered as a special purpose insurer. Each vehicle files an annual statutory return, a capital and solvency return and audited financial statements, and each is required to hold assets in Bermuda sufficient to meet its obligations. The principal representative of each vehicle is resident in Hamilton and must notify the supervisor of any event that threatens solvency within the period the local regime sets. IGUAKO Capital (Bermuda) Ltd., the holding company, is not itself licensed and carries out no regulated activity. No Bermuda entity takes deposits, holds client money or deals with retail policyholders.
Regulatory notices
Six notices for Bermuda.
Each notice combines the group standard with the provisions that apply in this jurisdiction.
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