Bermuda Monetary Authority: Regulator or Promotional Agency?

A few years ago, the then head of enforcement for the Bermuda Monetary Authority was rendered apoplectic on stage at an OffshoreAlert Conference after being asked to name a single individual or legal entity that the financial services regulator had ever penalized or disciplined since it was established in 1969. It’s difficult to come up with names off the top of your head when they number so few. Financial regulators in the United States penalize more financial miscreants in a typical afternoon than the BMA has in its entire 46-year history. For promotional purposes, the BMA’s message is ‘We have one of the three biggest insurance markets in the world. Yes indeed, sniff, sniff, we’re the world’s risk capital’. For regulatory purposes, the message seems to be ‘Insurance market? What insurance market?’.