Insurers operating in the Caribbean region manage complex ownership chains, cross-border relationships, amid increasing regulatory scrutiny. Insurance markets in these jurisdictions often involve international group structures and intermediary relationships. Therefore, AML controls must be risk-based, proportionate, and demonstrably effective. Below is a summary of the key challenges across the region.
Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority regulates insurance businesses under the Insurance Act. Cayman is a major centre for captive insurance and (re)insurance activity. Many insurers sit within wider corporate groups and directors and controllers can include professional service providers. Therefore, identifying and maintaining accurate beneficial ownership information is critical. Cayman’s AML framework expects insurers to demonstrate a clear understanding of customer purpose, source of funds, and ongoing risk.
Bermuda
The Bermuda Monetary Authority supervises a globally significant insurance sector known for captives, specialty lines, and reinsurance capacity. Bermuda insurers are often deeply embedded within multinational group structures.
Policies can cover risks across several jurisdictions. Boards may be international and ownership can sit behind layered holding vehicles. Therefore, the key challenge is evidencing who ultimately owns or controls an entity and ensuring sanctions exposure is assessed across group relationships. Bermuda’s ongoing focus on beneficial ownership transparency is reflected in the Beneficial Ownership Act of 2025.
British Virgin Islands (BVI)
The BVI Financial Services Commission regulates both domestic and captive insurers. Insurance structures in the BVI often include corporate service providers. Where reliance on third parties is used, insurers must ensure reliance frameworks are clearly documented. Beneficial ownership data must be current.
The jurisdiction’s position under increased international monitoring has sharpened focus on demonstrating effective controls rather than tick-box compliance. Insurers therefore need to show that risk assessments are substantive and that beneficial ownership and screening controls operate effectively in practice.
The Bahamas
The Insurance Commission of The Bahamas regulates a domestic insurance sector alongside an external insurance framework serving international structures.
External insurers, particularly those linked to self-insurance or international structures, face challenges around identifying who ultimately controls and mitigating sanctions risk from cross-border flows. The Bahamas has publicly committed to strengthening its national AML strategy, ahead of its 5th Round Mutual Evaluation by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) in October 2026.
How KYC360 Supports Caribbean Insurers
KYC360 enables insurers to move from fragmented KYC processes to a unified, risk-based framework. Through configurable workflows, integrated screening, and live risk scoring, firms can maintain a single, continuously updated customer profile rather than rebuilding files at each review stage.
For markets where ownership shifts, group structures evolve, and cross-border exposure is expected, a full lifecycle view is essential. With KYC360, insurers in the Caribbean can have clearer visibility of risk across the customer lifecycle and stronger auditability that meets the demands of regulators.
The KYC360 platform is an end-to-end solution offering slicker business processes with a streamlined, automated approach to Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance. This enables our customers to outperform commercially through operational efficiency gains whilst delivering improved customer experience and KYC data quality.
