Guernsey saw three new captive formations in 2020, but lost nine captives in the same year.

Guernsey ended 2020 with 197 captives licenced in the domicile, down six from the end of 2019.

In the cell space Guernsey also lost captives, seeing four new cells formed but nine captive cell licences surrendered.

The number of special purpose vehicles stayed the same, with two new formations and two licence surrenders keeping the number at 43.

The Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) released the figures on Thursday, including information on changes to the number of commercial general insurers, commercial reinsurers and commercial life insurers in 2020.

The number of captives in Guernsey has been slowly declining over the last couple of years, with the domicile losing six captives in 2019.

However Guernsey still remains the biggest captive domicile in Europe, and both Strategic Risk Solutions and Davies Captive Management this week announced they were opening new offices in Guernsey.