This month, Monte Carlo hosted the annual get-together of the world's insurance firms, including the reinsurers who insure them. But like a good cocktail, the rush can also induce some headaches.
The Rendez-Vous de Septembre (RVS) is the insurance and reinsurance industry's annual gathering. The 68th RVS hosted about 3,700 people from circa 90 countries - insurers, reinsurers, brokers, ILS/capital, lawyers, rating agencies, and the press.
This edition covered a host of topics, such as whether property reinsurance rate adequacy can hold into next year, and also alternative capital/ILS and how much it still disciplines traditional reinsurers. Other important issues concerned legacy/runoff deals overlapping the live market and relationship quality over transactional placement.
RVS is where international writers, captives' fronting partners, and reinsurers compare notes. So how is Malta faring in insurance, ILS and captives sector growth? FinanceMalta lists names such as BMW, Peugeot/Citroën, Nissan, Volkswagen, Vodafone, Liberty Global, and RWE, as well as Munich Re, among groups that have used Malta for insurance or captives. International GWP written for outside risks from Malta was already about €7.6 billion in 2023.
The two radical differences that matter if you choose Malta as a domicile include the following: a Malta cell can issue an EU policy. In particular, Bermuda equivalence does not in itself provide an EEA direct-insurance passport. Similarly, references to the absence of fronting fees or third-country capital effects may depend on the particular structure. That is why US and Asian groups put European risks in Malta instead of only in Bermuda - with the advantages of no EU fronting fee and no third-country credit-risk haircut on the fronter.
Bermuda's challenge is size, catastrophe capacity, ILS buyers, and a BMA that has lived with cells since the 1990s. Equivalence helps a Bermuda commercial reinsurer take ceded EU risks. It does not let a Bermuda captive cell sell motor or property in France. From next January 2027, SNCU/captive proportionality should lighten some of that regulation for simple first-party cells - that is Malta's current smart offer. Compare this new setup with Bermuda, where a pure captive SAC in a limited-purpose class is not run on the full commercial BSCR.
As a comparison, one chooses Bermuda for the group's main captive/reinsurance, while Malta is more popular as a cell for EEA paper. In fact, many agree that Malta is not Bermuda-lite, but it is the onshore EU cell. Again, Bermuda is not Malta-offshore, but it guarantees a global risk and capital market that happens to have the original statutory cell. In short, captives in Malta are usually affiliated insurance companies or, more often, cells inside a PCC ("rent-a-cell").
Malta is still the only EU member state with a full PCC (and ICC) insurance regime. Cells share the core's licence, governance and Solvency II infrastructure and passport into the EEA. Some PCC cores also run a UK branch so cells can touch UK risk without a second full carrier. So, by skipping attendance at Monaco Rendez-Vous insurance conferences, is Malta's market growing? The answer is given by the Malta Insurance Management Association, which is proud of over 200% growth in (re)insurance undertakings and cells combined since Solvency II in 2016.
In fact, they note how cell formation has outpaced new standalone companies. In one 2023 snapshot, cells were up and non-domestic standalone companies were slightly down. Notably, last year, Malta added one new licensed undertaking at the whole-sector level. What is the government/MFSA doing to pull new insurance and ILS entities? The answer is that this is not a tax-haven relaunch. It is proportional EU regulation + cell/ILS plumbing, so Malta's insurance/captive presence is established and still expanding through cells, not through a flood of new full licences.
The state is trying to make more money from the sector by defending the EU-only PCC franchise, applying SNCU/captive proportionality in 2027, and cheapening ILS vehicles (RSPV/SCC + GAPEE). That is a real strategy, yet it will not turn Malta into Bermuda; it is meant to keep mid-market and ILS flow that would otherwise stay offshore or in Ireland. MFSA ran dedicated workshops for captives, PCCs and managers in June 2026. So what is new?
We still offer Securitisation Cell Companies (SCCs) for catastrophe bonds, collateralised reinsurance, longevity transfers, and cell sidecars. Other sweeteners include how, in late 2025/early 2026, the government widened GAPEE (introduced earlier in 2023) as a new set of local accounting principles (see extension by Legal Notice 299 of 2025). Malta introduced a new accounting option for RSPVs, securitisation vehicles, and special purpose vehicles.
We all know about the legislation termed IFRS 17, which is notoriously complex and considered expensive for ILS structures. Malta's recent push in 2026 to attract insurance, captives, and ILS business is real, coordinated, and unusually aggressive compared with prior years. The country is clearly positioning itself as Europe's most proportionate, flexible, and regulator-accessible domicile for alternative risk transfer - especially as Solvency II reforms and new EU directives come into force in 2027. Malta's recent push in 2026 to attract insurance, captives, and ILS business is real, coordinated, and unusually aggressive compared with prior years. The country is clearly positioning itself as Europe's most proportionate, flexible, and regulator-accessible domicile for alternative risk transfer, especially as Solvency II reforms and new EU directives will come into force in 2027.
Malta is lowering friction via accounting reforms, by expanding regulatory categories, and by promoting its PCC/RSPV frameworks to capture new captive and ILS inflows. So far, early data shows triple-digit growth in the captive sector. It directly targets catastrophe bond issuers, collateralised reinsurance platforms, and sidecar structures. This is explicitly designed to make Malta more competitive vs. Bermuda, Guernsey, and Ireland. Malta is preparing for the Solvency II Review Package and the Insurance Recovery and Resolution Directive (IRRD) coming into effect in January 2027.
The MFSA is introducing SNCU (Small and Non-Complex Undertakings); these allow captives and small reinsurance entities to operate under lighter, proportionate regulatory requirements. This is part of a broader strategy to make Malta the EU's most proportionate Solvency II jurisdiction. Malta is positioning itself to become Europe's primary ILS hub (if and when GAPEE adoption accelerates).
George M Mangion is Senior Partner PKF Malta