24th October 2008
AGM in Budapest
The Offshore Group of Insurance Supervisors (“the Group”) held its Annual General Meeting on 14 October 2008 in Budapest, Hungary, concurrent with the Annual Meeting of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (“IAIS”).
Mr. David Vick, Chief Executive, Insurance and Pensions Authority – Isle of Man, was re-elected Chairman of the Group. Other members of the Executive Committee elected were Oscar Menezes – Deputy Chairman (Macau), Nataly Davelaar-Mercelina – Secretary (Netherlands Antilles), Diane Colton - Treasurer (Guernsey), Caribbean Region Representative – Elton Lettsome (British Virgin Islands), Pacific Region Representative – Ala Lima (Samoa) and European Region Representative – Nigel Woodroffe (Jersey).
Matters discussed at the meeting included, amongst others, the impact on the insurance market of recent global developments and developments within the IAIS particularly recent IAIS papers. As has been the case during recent years, the Group and its members have made substantial contributions to many areas of the work of the IAIS. Guernsey expressed their thanks to the members of the Group who had provided significant work in the production of the IAIS Captive Issues Paper and the Captive Guidance Paper. The latter was adopted at the IAIS AGM in Budapest on 17 October.
The Group also discussed progress made to update and improve the OGIS website. The structure has now been agreed, and it was hoped that the content can be uploaded and edited in time for the Group’s next working meeting.
The Group noted that significant progress had been made in achieving its goal of providing training to its members and observers. The educational programme will continue to be updated to take account of the educational needs of the members and observers. Following very successful training programmes for both junior and senior regulatory staff in 2008, undertaken with support from the IAIS, the Group discussed plans for further training programmes to be held in May 2009, in conjunction with the Annual Working Meeting of the Group, and also in September 2009.
This year’s AGM was Chris Collins’ last meeting with the Group because he will be retiring from the Gibraltar Financial Services Authority. The acting Chairman of the meeting, Nigel Woodroffe, expressed his thanks to Chris for his contributions to the work of the Group. Mike Oliver, previously with the BVI Financial Services Authority, will take over Chris’ position in Gibraltar and Elton Lettsome will assume the position previously occupied by Mike in the BVI.
Two applications for membership were received at the meeting, and these will be reviewed by the Evaluation Committee in the next few weeks. The 2009 working meeting with an additional training module will be held in May in Curaçao, and the next annual meeting will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in October 2009, to coincide with the IAIS annual conference.
Note to Editors
Note to Editors The Offshore Group of Insurance Supervisors (“OGIS”) was formed just ahead of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (“IAIS”) in 1993 and quickly moved to establish and develop a number of regulatory standards and Guidelines. Subsequently all of the Members and most of the Observers have become members of the IAIS, which has in turn developed Standards and Guidelines of its own.
OGIS applies specific conditions for membership. Observers have committed themselves to meeting these conditions within a reasonable time frame.
Current members of OGIS are Bahamas, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Netherlands Antilles, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Labuan, Macau, Mauritius, Samoa, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Current Observers of OGIS are Anguilla, Aruba, Bahrain, Belize, St. Lucia and Vanuatu.