BDA Launches Climate Risk Finance Initiative

Hamilton, Bermuda, April 21, 2021 – As part of its strategy to foster sustainable, equitable growth in Bermuda, the Bermuda Business Development Agency (BDA), led by Government and in collaboration with the private sector, has launched an initiative to establish and promote the jurisdiction as the world’s climate risk finance capital.

The aim is to make climate risk finance an additional leg on Bermuda’s economic stool, one that is highly aligned with, and complimentary to our key market strengths: re/insurance, Insurance-Linked Securities (ILS) and our professional services expertise.

BDA CEO, Roland Andy Burrows, said, “It is a natural fit for Bermuda to become a major base of operations for the global climate risk finance sector. Not only do we already have many of the world’s leading experts on weather-related catastrophes based here in our globally significant property catastrophe reinsurance market, we also have a financial services regulator, in the form of the Bermuda Monetary Authority, which understands the importance of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) concerns.”

“We applaud the Bermuda Government for its many decades of and ongoing commitment to climate and environmental initiatives,” Mr. Burrows said. “Bermuda has for years punched above its weight, playing a disproportionate role on the world stage for a jurisdiction of our size. By extending our global reinsurance leadership to climate risk finance, Bermuda can again prove to be a collaborative partner to the world’s key markets, a leading member of the worldwide family of responsible communities, playing a major role in delivering solutions to one of the most important challenges of our time.”

A core team of leaders from Government, the BDA and its partners have been preparing for virtual and, in due course, in person engagements to educate capital allocators, entrepreneurs and other key stakeholders about Bermuda’s key competitive advantages in climate risk finance, and the exciting options Bermuda affords to accelerate and support strategies in this sector.

“We will work to bring climate risk finance firms to Bermuda, thereby providing a new landscape of exciting and innovative career opportunities for Bermudians,” BDA Chair Stephen Weinstein added. “While it will be challenging, and can only develop over time, we have the goal of encouraging a new economic pillar of analogous scale to reinsurance. That is, substantial, international market firms, characterised by substantial domestic physical presence employing Bermudians, hiring vendors and service firms, generating visits and activity in the hospitality and leisure sectors.”

“By reaffirming Bermuda’s commitment to one of the world’s top priorities, the effort also generally reinforces our global relevance and appeal to investors, businesses, and capital allocators alike.”

“I would also like thank Government for their leadership, and engaging with the Bermuda Business Development Agency, and our private market stakeholders to build an exciting, knowledge based sector providing new opportunities for Bermuda’s talented pool of human capital”.