Historically, Bermuda has been at the forefront of the growth and success of the global, conventional insurance and reinsurance market. However, interest has been sparked in the relatively new and growing market of Shari'ah-compliant takaful and retakaful, the insurance and reinsurance of the Islamic world.
The immense wealth held in the Middle East and North African region bodes well for global growth in takaful and retakaful businesses, as well as pointing to a growing need for Bermuda service providers to support such opportunities. It is widely accepted that the conventional insurance model is incompatible with Islamic beliefs – consequently, Shar'iah-compliant structures have been developed as a way for Muslim clients to share risk.
Bermuda is the world's leading domicile for captives so it makes sense that there are opportunities for Middle East corporations to form takaful/retakaful captives on the basis of mutual indemnification of losses. There are also opportunities to develop retakaful and retro-takaful entities for the US market due to Bermuda's prime global location.
Because of its inherent ethical practices, ethical investments and transparency of contracts, a powerful business argument also supports the attractiveness of takaful and retakaful companies to non-Muslims, indicating that even in the current economic climate, there are financial growth opportunities in Bermuda for Shari'ah-compliant businesses.