Premier: "Innovation Is Inside the Collective DNA of All Bermudians"

The recent Bermuda Business Development Agency (BDA) FinTech forum at ME London explored commercialization of FinTech, banking of digital assets, and Bermuda's new regulatory framework governing initial coin offerings, virtual asset business, and InsurTech. There was also a forum focused on insurance-linked securities, whose global market capacity Bermuda dominates.

American International Group (AIG) CEO Brian Duperreault praised Bermuda's "culture of quality and innovation," while urging FinTech entrepreneurs to be relentless in their pursuit of novel ideas, in remarks made on the second of a 2-day industry forum in London.

"First and foremost, you have to believe, and what a great feeling it is when you are successful," Mr. Duperreault told attendees in an opening "fireside chat," titled "Innovation Island: Why Industry Pioneers Choose Bermuda." 

Mr. Duperreault was joined by Bermuda Premier David Burt and moderator Sean Moran, BDA interim CEO. The trio spoke about the AIG chief executive's legacy as an insurance trailblazer and compared the industry's historic disruption with the current FinTech revolution.

(Pictured above, from left, are Brian Duperreault, David Burt, and Sean Moran. Photo is courtesy of the Bermuda Business Development Agency.)

"Success breeds success," said Mr. Duperreault. "Bermuda encourages people with an idea, who have the capital to deploy, who are quality people, to come to its market. And their success attracts others. Back in the 1980s and '90s, we kind of made up the rules as we went along."

"You can find accelerators and incubators anywhere in the world, from London to New York to Singapore, but there's only one place where the entire place is itself an innovation hub, and that is Bermuda," said the premier. "Innovation is inside the collective DNA of all Bermudians. If you're looking for a jurisdiction with a forward-thinking government that welcomes entrepreneurs and you have an idea you'd like to demonstrate on a countrywide scale, then Bermuda can make your ideas reality."

In the afternoon forum focused on insurance-linked securities (ILS), which was titled "Beyond Convergence" and hosted by ILS Bermuda, ILS Bermuda Chair Greg Wojciechowski, a BDA director and CEO of the Bermuda Stock Exchange, said, "There's increasing jurisdictional competition in the ILS space, but it's valuable in a market like London that has created its own ILS platform to share and exchange ideas."

He continued, "Competition doesn't necessarily mean going after the same pie; it can grow the pie. There are experiences we've had, due to the maturity of our insurance and ILS sectors, that we can share. And the face-to-face exchange of ideas gives people comfort to do business with you."

Almost 200 industry professionals attended day one of the forum, according to the BDA.