STANDARD BANK MAUTITIUS

In October 2016, the Guardrisk

Group in Mauritius acquired another external insurance license in Mauritius making it a fully-fledged group with capabilities to write reinsurance, short term insurance, long term insurance, and also providing insurance management services.

“Guardrisk Group in Mauritius has grown from strength to strength with an annual gross written premium of $191 million as of June 2018,” explains Ramlochun. “According to known statistics, Guardrisk Group is the biggest cell captive insurer/reinsurer group in the country.

“Furthermore, all Guardrisk companies in Mauritius are Global Business Category 1 companies and regulated by the Financial Services Commission. Our clients are mostly from African countries and Guardrisk has the authority to write business in multiple hard currencies and can issue policies for all classes of risk permitted under the Insurance Act 2005.”

Crucially, Guardrisk International

Ltd PCC and Guardrisk Insurance Company Mauritius Ltd PCC operate as protected cell companies and are governed by the provisions of the Protected Cell Companies Act 1999, where each cell is legally ringfenced against the performance of other cells, thereby giving maximum protection to cell owners.

This prompts Ramlochun to outline some of the key benefits associated with cell captive insurance.

“Self-insurance is the very essence of cell captive and organisations who manage their risk seriously are getting increasingly interested in this concept of insurance,” he says. “Cell captive insurance gives an organisation the possibility and opportunity to open another income stream out of proper and responsible management of risks.

“Guardrisk provides this platform in Mauritius where risks situated anywhere in the world can be reinsured or insured within a cell, and the cell owner gets an insurance vehicle without the need to set up an insurance company. The cell owner shall have rights to the underwriting results of the cell’s business and may request dividend out of the cell.”

Standard Bank Mauritius is a fully owned subsidiary of Standard Bank Group, the largest bank in Africa in terms of assets, valued at $123 billion at the end of 2018. In operation for over 155 years, Standard Bank has established a vast continental network that includes 20 African nations and operates an expanding presence across key emerging markets.

Through its partnership with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world’s largest bank by assets, Standard Bank is positioned to support trade and deal flows between Africa, China and emerging markets.

Benefitting from the Group’s vast network across the African continent, Standard Bank Mauritius enables its stakeholders to have access to on-theground market intelligence and use the strong local relationships which are essential to running a successful business in Africa. Adding to that, the Bank also benefits from Mauritius’s reputation for the ease of doing business. The country is ranked first in Sub-Saharan Africa in the World Bank’s ease of doing business index and enjoys a Baa1 and stable credit rating from Moody’s, combined with no exchange controls, good governance as well as political and economic stability. These are prime reasons why investors use the Mauritian jurisdiction as a financial conduit.

The partnership of Standard Bank Mauritius with Guardrisk dates to

2010. The relationship has been mainly to support its cash management requirements and has been growing over the years. Leveraging on the Group’s extensive understanding and knowledge of the continent, the Bank has been able to accompany Guardrisk in its expansion across Africa.