Marsh is set to become the first international broker to offer captive insurance management services in Bahrain, extending a pattern of first-mover positions across the Gulf that began in Dubai in 2008 and Abu Dhabi in 2018.
The announcement was made at Gateway Gulf in Manama. Bahrain has had dedicated captive legislation since 2005, with the first captive formed there in 2007, but until now no international broker has offered managed captive services in the jurisdiction.
Marcin Antosik, Marsh’s captive operations leader for the Middle East region, will lead the Bahrain captive offering alongside the firm’s existing regional operations.
The move comes as appetite for captive structures among GCC corporates has grown. Total captive-related assets under Marsh management in the Middle East reached $612 million in 2023, a 40% increase year on year, while net income of Marsh-managed captives in the region surpassed $100 million, up more than 50% from $66 million in 2022. Marsh has attributed that growth to clients increasingly treating captives as a strategic risk-financing tool rather than a niche arrangement, with feasibility study demand rising sharply in 2023 and 2024 across industries including oil and gas, energy, healthcare and property.
Noor Al-Haji, chief executive of Marsh Bahrain and Kuwait, said Bahrain’s position as a regulated financial centre made the timing right. “As businesses across the GCC pursue growth in an environment shaped by stronger non-oil investment, evolving regulation and increasingly complex risks - from supply chain disruption and cyber exposure to healthcare and employee benefit cost pressures - captive insurance is becoming a more strategic tool for financial resilience,” Al-Haji said.
Marsh received the first license to provide captive insurance management in Dubai in 2008, operating through the Dubai International Financial Centre. A decade later, it was awarded the first captive management license in Abu Dhabi, through the Abu Dhabi Global Market. Bahrain represents a third regulated Gulf captive domicile for the firm, and what Marsh says is the first time an international broker has held managed captive authorization across all three.
The most popular line of business among Marsh-managed captives in the Middle East remains property, though the portfolio has expanded to cover political violence, liability, construction and group accident programs. Antosik said clients were seeking greater control, flexibility and certainty over their risk financing as exposures grew more complex.
“We look forward to helping organizations across the region use captive solutions to protect against emerging exposures and future shocks,” he said. marsh
Bahrain’s captive framework is regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain under Volume 3 of its Insurance Rulebook, which sets out licensing conditions, capital requirements and conduct standards for captive insurers and their managers. The kingdom positions itself as a GCC financial hub with direct access to wider Gulf markets, a feature that Dalal Buhejji, executive director of financial services at the Bahrain Economic Development Board, said made it an attractive base for international professional services firms.
