Barbados

Axco provides details on the life insurance sector including Bahamanian market participants, reinsurance and distribution channels. The reports describe classes of business from both individual and group life such as whole life, endowment, term life and unit-linked.
Information on non-life classes for example critical illness and private medical insurance.

The report describes the public and private healthcare system in The Bahamas, the scope of cover, accessibility financing and provides an analysis of how the public and private systems complement each other.

Axco reports on the three pillars of The Bahamas pension provision.

• State pension benefits including benefit calculations and eligibility criteria 
• Workplace pension provision; types of schemes calculations eligibility and; tax implications
• Voluntary individual pension provision, type of products and tax implications

The Bahamas report provides an in-depth analysis of the regulatory framework governing social security as well as details on financing and eligibility. Information includes but is not limited to

• state pensions,
• permanent disability benefit
• occupational accident and disease
• maternity and paternity payments 

Summary and Trends

Premium development of the Barbados life and annuities market has been erratic over the years, possibly owing to some inconsistency in the presentation of statistics either by individual companies or the FSC. In the three years through 2019, when premiums were BBD 258.3mn. The market is heavily influenced by individual life business, with what is classified locally as "ordinary life" accounting for 53% of the 2019 total. 

Healthcare is regarded as a non-life class, although life insurers write most of the PMI business. Overall PA and healthcare premium income written across the life and non-life sectors contracted by 2.5% in 2019 to BBD 49.1mn. The provision of free public treatment and hospital care - which it is understood applied also to COVID-19 cases - militates to some degree against the need for private treatment or private medical insurance (PMI).

Summary and Trends

Annuity premiums in the insurance market in 2019 were BBD 49.2mn (USD 24.6mn), group pensions BBD 17.8mn (USD 8.9mn), with growth levels of 4.5% and 7.5% respectively. As with other life classes, premium development was erratic in the years to that date, although there was some explanation for growth in annuities of 500% in 2015. During that year Sagicor Life USA entered into a reinsurance agreement with