The Barbados Domicile
Barbados has had a long history of political and economic stability. Together with an excellent education system and sound infrastructure, it offers an attractive environment for global financial services and wealth management, ICT, medical schools, fintech, research and development, renewable energy and medicinal cannabis, in addition to captive insurance companies.
For decades, Barbados has been known as a domicile for
captive insurance business, ranking among the top ten
domiciles worldwide, according to Business Insurance.
A sound business environment, favourable business
solutions, facilitated through an expanding double
taxation treaty network and the domicile’s ability to
respond to the needs of clients, are essential elements
of the Barbados Business Brand. The introduction of
new legislation and upgrades to current legislation
are undertaken to improve Barbados’ product mix and
ensure that investors’ needs are met.
Barbados has long-standing treaties with Canada, the
UK and the USA. The country is also expanding its global
business activity within Latin America and has treaties
with Mexico, Panama and Venezuela. Barbados is at
various stages of discussions for double taxation treaties
with several other Latin American countries including
Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Costa Rica. The country’s
recognition within Latin America, as a captive jurisdiction,
continues to grow and the incorporated cell company is
quite appealing to owners of the many privately held
conglomerates in Latin America.
As of December 31, 2023, the Financial Services
Commission (FSC) reported that there were 267 active
captive insurance companies in Barbados with USA and
Canada captives accounting for approximately 70% of
the total number. In addition to the traditional property
and casualty exposures, captives are also being used to
ensure environmental liability, product recall, weather
risk, intellectual property infringement rights and other
business risks including disruptions caused by severe
disease outbreaks like the coronavirus pandemic.
Barbados continues to prove that it is well equipped to
provide the captive insurance infrastructure to assist
with navigating these realities.