Since the Digital Asset Business Act (DABA) came into force in 2018, Bermuda has built a reputation as one of the first jurisdictions with a dedicated, comprehensive regime for digital-asset businesses, covering exchanges, custodians, token issuers and related services under a single framework. 

By the end of 2024, 50 firms held active licences for digital assets and insurance innovation, a 60 per cent increase over the prior year. In the first quarter of 2025, that total rose to 53 licensed entities, including 39 digital-asset companies and 14 innovative insurers. 

Bermuda is leveraging its longstanding strength in re/insurance to carve out a niche where digital assets and risk transfer intersect. 

For example, Bermuda-regulated Members Capital has launched a tokenised insurance-linked securities fund on a digital-asset exchange, while also rolling out ILS funds that can accept stablecoins as investor capital. 

And Bermudian-based Meanwhile, the first the first licensed long-term insurer to denominate premiums, policy values and claims entirely in bitcoin, announced in October that it had raised $82 million from major institutional investors, reflecting confidence in its business.

  Such developments support Bermuda’s reputation as a centre of insurance innovation. 

The Bermuda Monetary Authority has launched a discussion paper on asset tokenisation, seeking input from stakeholders on the opportunities, challenges and regulatory considerations of tokenisation, not only in insurance, but also in areas including investment funds, real estate, precious metals and environmental markets.

However, the global competitive landscape is shifting. In Washington, the tone toward digital assets has softened markedly in 2025. An executive order on “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology” directed US agencies to develop coherent frameworks for digital assets, tokenisation and real-time payments as part of a broader fintech strategy. 

At the same time, the US Congress has advanced bipartisan legislation, including the Genius Act, aimed at providing federal-level clarity for core parts of the digital-asset market.

Commentators at the financial innovation firm WisdomTree have branded 2025 “the year clarity came to crypto”, arguing that US, UK and EU policymakers are converging on scalable rules after years of fragmented enforcement.

 For the global industry, a more predictable US regime is likely to be net positive, increasing institutional comfort, deepening liquidity and accelerating mainstream adoption.

 Until now, Bermuda’s clear, risk-based rules and direct access to regulators have been a differentiator, a key draw for overseas founders frustrated by uncertainty at home. If the US offers comparable clarity – alongside a larger domestic market, access to US banking rails and proximity to major venture capital hubs – some early-stage firms may opt to launch in the US, rather than a jurisdiction like Bermuda.

That does not necessarily spell decline for Bermuda. Instead, the island may sharpen its focus more narrowly and emerge as a domicile for sophisticated, cross-border structures rather than mass-market retail platforms. 

Tokenised ILS, crypto reinsurance vehicles and life insurance products denominated in digital assets are all areas where Bermuda’s re/insurance expertise and digital-asset regime intersect in ways that are hard for competitors to replicate quickly. 

In the near term, Bermuda’s challenge will be to keep building on the international credibility of its regulatory regime – particularly in areas such as tokenisation. If it can remain the jurisdiction where complex ideas in digital finance meet deep insurance capital and credible oversight, the island may find that America’s new openness is less a threat than a prompt to refine its niche.

The post US warms to digital assets – where does that leave Bermuda? appeared first on RG Magazines.

 As cyberattacks increase worldwide, the island’s wealth and concentration of high-value firms make it an appealing target for criminal groups seeking quick payouts.

The island’s global insurance sector, financial institutions, professional-services firms and even small retailers often hold sensitive data that criminals view as valuable leverage.

The major cyberattack that crippled Bermuda Government systems in September 2023 and caused disruption for weeks afterwards highlighted the potential dangers for the island.

In 2024, both the Lindo’s Group of Companies and Bermuda College revealed they had experienced “cyber incidents”. It is likely that many more Bermuda organisations have been targeted by hackers without going public.

In January this year, PowerSchool, a US education technology provider used by Bermuda’s public schools, reported that unauthorised access was obtained via compromised credentials. This attack highlighted how local organisations can be impacted by an attack on an overseas digital services provider.

 Cybersecurity firm TotalAssure projects there will be nearly 293 million cyber incidents globally this year, up 22 per cent from 2024, based on the data it tracks. Some of this increase is attributed to hackers harnessing the power of AI to increase the volume and intensity of attacks. 

Phishing e-mails, historically easier to spot, are now being crafted by AI models capable of mimicking writing styles, producing flawless grammar and generating personalised messages using publicly available information. 

What once looked like a clumsy scam can now appear indistinguishable from internal corporate communication, making it far more likely that an employee will click on a malicious link or open an infected attachment.

TotalAssure also finds 79 per cent of successful attacks use no malware, gaining access to systems through legitimate credentials hackers often obtain by duping humans, traditionally viewed as a weak link in cybersecurity defences.

No matter how strong the firewalls that a company has in place, defences can be easily bypassed if staff, unaware of the dangers, click on a suspicious link or take the phishing bait. Hence the critical importance of training. 

The Bermuda Government has moved to strengthen the island’s defences against cyberattacks, by enacting the Cybersecurity Act 2024, which tightens protections for critical national infrastructure.

The Ministry of National Security has also partnered with the International Telecommunication Union, an agency of the United Nations, to build the island’s protection and response framework against cyber threats, enabling the implementation of a national cybersecurity incident response team.

The result will be public access to “real-time threat information, awareness resources and incident reporting tools”, while also helping to equip the island with a threat intelligence platform to detect, analyse and protect against cyber threats, the Ministry has stated.

For 60 per cent of business leaders, cybersecurity is a top-three strategic priority, according to PwC’s 2026 Global Digital Trust survey of nearly 3,900 executives across 72 countries. The survey showed geopolitical risk has heightened concerns over the cyber threat. And it found many businesses are looking to use AI agents to bolster security in areas including the cloud, data protection, cyber defence and operations.

For businesses of all sizes, cybersecurity is increasingly viewed as less a purely technical issue delegated to the IT team and more a whole-organisation priority. Proactive businesses are deploying multi-factor authentication, strong password practices, encrypted backups and robust incident-response plans. Maintaining up-to-date software and applying patches in a timely fashion, is also essential to prevent hackers from exploiting known weaknesses.

As Bermuda continues to expand its high-tech economy, cybersecurity maturity must grow alongside it. The threat landscape is not standing still — and neither can Bermudian organisations.

The post Stopping the hackers appeared first on RG Magazines.

 Already the benefits being paid out by the fund exceed the social insurance contributions being paid in by nearly $70 million. 

Next year is projected to be the first in which benefits will exceed the sum of contributions plus investment income, starting the downward trajectory that leads to exhaustion by 2042.

Simply put – without significant changes – Bermudians in their mid-40s and younger are paying into a pension fund that will not pay them a cent in retirement.

To change that outlook, David Burt, the Premier and Minister of Finance, has promised to look at proposals to reform the CPF in 2026.

Lawmakers are likely to be asked to consider adjustments to one or more of three key variables: benefits, contributions and retirement age.

In 2025, there are more than 15,000 CPF pension recipients, a number that has risen 44 per cent in the space of 14 years, as baby boomers exit the work force.

On the other side of the ledger, the number of contributors fell by nearly 6 per cent between 2011 and 2023, as the size of the workforce declined. As of 2023, there were on average 2.3 people paying into the fund for each pension recipient. As the actuarial report noted, “the CPF is not financially sustainable for the long term”.

This year the Government enacted reforms for the Public Service Superannuation Fund, which benefits public service workers, and which had been on course to run out by 2045. 

The changes raise the minimum age for uniformed services to collect full pensions from 50 to 55, and for most other civil servants from 60 to 65. There was also an increase in contributions — from 9 per cent of salary to 11.5 per cent for uniformed services and from 8 per cent to 10 per cent for other civil servants. The changes will be implemented between 2027 and 2035.

A change in retirement age seems logical, given the increase in life expectancy. A study by the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation found that in 1980, men would on average have 14 years in retirement after exiting the workforce, and by 2022, this had increased to 18 years. For women, the retirement period grew from 18 years to almost 23 years over the same period. 

Many countries facing an unfunded pension liabilities crisis have opted to raise the retirement age. Australia, Denmark and Iceland, for example, have an official retirement age of 67.

 Britain is one of several countries going through a graduated increase: the state pension age went up to 66 in 2020 and is scheduled to climb to 67 by 2028 and to 68 by 2037.

In some nations, there are financial incentives for delaying retirement. In Canada, for example, people who retire at 65 receive the standard monthly payment. If they opt to retire at 60, they receive 36 per cent less. And retiring at 70, they would pocket 42 per cent more.

All that said, in Bermuda total reliance on a government pension to cover all living expenses would seem unrealistic. The basic pension is $1,206 per month and the maximum is $1,752. Subtracting the minimum premium for the government-run FutureCare health plan for seniors — $530 a month — would not leave much to pay other bills.

 For many Bermudians, their occupational pension plans, funded by 5 per cent deductions from wages and a matching contribution from their employers, will provide more of their retirement income than their government pension.

When leaders of the pension fund management industry spoke at the CFA Society Bermuda’s Pension Breakfast Seminar in September, their message was clear: we all need take charge of our own retirement funds, rather than rely on underfunded, government-run pension schemes.

The panel noted the average pension balance in Bermuda is about $150,000 — compared to the average balance of $313,000 in American 401(k) retirement funds — for people aged 45 to 55. Local factors such as mid-career withdrawals, maternity leave and the gender pay gap make the shortfall more pronounced, they said.

To achieve an income of 70 per cent of pre-retirement income, it is likely many of us may need to work for longer, or contribute more to our pension funds, or both, the panellists remarked.

The idea that retirement happens at an age set by the Government was challenged by Karl Smith, head of pensions, life and investment at Freisenbruch, who said: “It’s not. It’s a time set on you with regard to what you put in, what plan you put in place, and it’s that planning piece that we’re all missing.”

In practice, it’s clear that in Bermuda many people are not stopping work at 65. According to the latest Employment Briefs survey, Bermuda’s workforce includes more than 3,000 people aged 65 and over, representing 9 per cent of the workforce.

Another factor that can have a significant impact on the growth of a pension nest egg is the fees charged by a fund administrator. A report by the US Department of Labour illustrated how a difference of 1 percentage point in fees charged over time reduced an example pension plan’s closing balance by a staggering 28 per cent.

In July last year, Mr Burt said that from 2020 to 2023, it was estimated that plan administrators collectively earned gross administration fees of more than $500 million, based on a typical annual fee of 1.5 per cent of a plan member’s balance.

In September this year, MPs passed legislation that limited what local defined contribution pension plan administrators can charge to 0.5 per cent when the account balance is below $25,000; 0.5 per cent when below $50,000; and 1.25 per cent when the account balance is above $50,000.

The post Action needed to save our pensions appeared first on RG Magazines.

Nearly three-quarters of respondents (72 per cent) said they would support a government-backed lending programme, in partnership with local banks, designed to encourage owners to make repairs to derelict homes. Only 9 per cent would oppose such a scheme, while 19 per cent were unsure.

And nearly half of people (46 per cent) would welcome the Government being empowered to seize long-term derelict homes for redevelopment into affordable housing, by means of compulsory acquisition orders. 

Other respondents were split between opposing the measure (28 per cent) and being unsure about it (26 per cent).

The survey of 401 residents was conducted for The Royal Gazette by Global Research. With Bermuda going through a housing crisis and with more than 1,100 people homeless, the results reflect strong support for converting a blight on the landscape into badly needed homes.

The Department of Planning, in its 2023 Housing Land Audit, recognised 333 units as “uninhabitable”. These are properties categorised by the Department of Land Valuation as having an annual rental value of $0.

Pembroke was the area with most uninhabitable structures (43), followed by Sandys and the City of Hamilton (each had 31), Warwick (25) and the Town of St George (22). 

The report stressed this data probably failed to capture all uninhabitable properties, since the onus was on owners to apply for “uninhabitable” classification, which sometimes they did not do. 

Issues that render a property unfit for living in include a collapsing roof or floor, or a combination of smaller defects that “go beyond normal repairs”.

The report explains: “Anecdotal evidence suggests that many of these properties are locked in family disputes, lack of kin readily available to inherit property, or insufficient finances are available to refurbish property so that it can return to the property market.”

Crystal Caesar, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, stated in December 2024 that the Department of Planning was working on an updated Housing Land Audit, which was not available at the time of writing.

Some of the uninhabitable buildings are are government properties. The Bermuda Housing Corporation is in the process of a four-year project to redevelop 77 derelict units to add to its available housing stock by 2027.  

In April this year, The Royal Gazette reported that the Government was considering penalties and incentives to stimulate development of vacant properties. 

A government spokesman was quoted as saying: “Vacant buildings are often empty because their owners lack the financial means to carry out necessary renovations. Simply increasing the tax burden could make revitalisation even more challenging. Instead, the Government believes a holistic and creative approach is required, one that carefully balances penalties and incentives in a way that is fair, equitable and effective.”

A government-backed lending programme to help owners of dilapidated buildings to fund renovations proved popular in the survey. Partnering with a local bank in such a way enabled the Government to launch a mortgage guarantee scheme in October 2022, in which qualifying first-time borrowers received rates as low as 5 per cent and down payments of 10 per cent for mortgages with Bermuda Commercial Bank.

As for development of newbuild affordable housing, that is only likely to happen if the Government provides financial incentives to developers, agreed nearly half (48 per cent) of respondents to the survey. Just under one in five (18 per cent) disagreed, while one third (34 per cent) were unsure. 

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For her business, however, there have been significant ups as well as downs. Her Cayman Islands store celebrated gold wins for Best Boutique and Best Men’s Store in the Best of Cayman Islands awards, the Dockyard store continues to do well, and her flagship retail store on Reid Street has a loyal following of customers who enjoy not just her colourful shorts, but the array of other clothing, jewellery and newly launched Isla Botanica aromatherapy products. 

In spite of this success, the retail sector, and her business, has significant challenges to overcome heading into 2026. These are not just tariffs and shipping costs. “We have real issues with Amazon, Zara, all of these big box brands from the US. We’re tiny retailers and we have to compete with huge international brands,” she said.

When consumers buy something online however, they don’t see, or pay, the full landed price immediately. It may seem like that item is cheaper, but once shipping and duty has been added, that’s not necessarily the case.

One solution that could level the playing field would be updated and simplified Customs Procedure Codes (CPC) for retailers, so that if you import an item for a local store, you don’t pay the same duty as someone importing an item for themselves. “A lot of CPC codes were set up decades ago and things have changed and the way of doing business has changed. Back then, Amazon didn’t exist,” Ms Singleton pointed out.

“The retail market has changed and we have to adapt to it or retailers will close and we will not have a city centre. If you want a heart of a city and a place that people want to go, you need stores.” Stores are also important because the retail sector only employs Bermudians.

What about online shopping from local stores? 

Locals buying online dropped off after Covid, and TABS’ overseas online business was decimated in the wake of US tariffs. Views on their website however, are still very high. “They’ll check it online first and then they’ll come into the store,” Ms Singleton said. “People aren’t making transactions on the website, but they are looking and that often leads to a sale.”

Despite the challenges they face, Bermuda’s retailers are fighting back. “We’re all banding together and realising that strength is in numbers and that we have to change, fundamentally, how people view shopping in Bermuda,” she said. 

They agree that in order to encourage people to shop locally, they need to not only be price competitive, but also support each other, be open on the same days and times, in particular in the run-up to Christmas, and also create a vibrant shopping culture for customers to enjoy.

Business might be “spikey”, but Ms Singleton is an entrepreneur, and, she said, “the hustle doesn’t stop”. Not only is she launching new products and consistently improving her own products, but after the success of her Cayman Islands store, she is even considering further expansion into the Caribbean. 

Bermuda’s retailers, she said, “are not in this for the money. We’re in this because we love Bermuda. They’re sales people at heart. They want to get you what you want.” 

With the right support, she’s confident Bermuda’s stores can boom once more: “If the retail sector can come together with the support of the Government there’s nothing we can’t do.”

The post Competing with giants appeared first on RG Magazines.

To give us a local perspective on how this technology is being used in Bermuda, we spoke to Marisa Whitecross and Liz Ebbs-Brewer, both recruitment services managers at Expertise Group, who pointed out that firstly, local companies don’t tend to suffer from too many applications.

“Investing in AI recruitment tools makes financial sense for large, global firms that manage thousands of applicants per month. In Bermuda, most organisations are small and typically receive a manageable number of applications, so traditional HR practices remain efficient and cost-effective,” Ms Whitecross said.

Ms Ebbs-Brewer also pointed out that Bermuda’s companies sometimes have the opposite problem: “The challenge for employers is not that we have 600-plus applications to review, it’s that we sometimes receive only a handful. Consequently, even candidates who are a weak match to the job requirements get looked at closely.”

This doesn’t mean that there is no beneficial role for AI in Bermuda’s recruitment industry, however. It can be particularly helpful for candidates, when used wisely: “It enables candidates to present their experience in the strongest and most relevant way relative to a specific job’s requirements,” explained Ms Ebbs-Brewer. 

“Before AI, many applicants submitted generic CVs and cover letters with very little tailoring, which made it harder for employers to assess whether their background truly matched the role. If used well, AI helps people express their strengths more clearly.”

Honesty and accuracy however, should never be compromised, warned Ms Whitecross: “AI should clarify a person’s experience, not fabricate or embellish. Recruiters can spot that instantly. Employers still want authenticity, not a machine-generated persona.”

There have been reports about candidates manipulating their applications to ensure they get noticed by AI tools. The effectiveness of this, however, is exaggerated: “There are some myths out there about ‘tricking’ AI screening systems – things like including CVs with hidden keywords in white text,” said Ms Ebbs-Brewer. “In practice, serious employers aren’t using tools that can be gamed that way, and HR professionals often easily detect manipulation.” 

Such manipulation can also backfire. “Recruiters, as well as AI, respond best to clarity, not gimmicks,” she said. “A simple, well-organised CV that plainly highlights relevant experience will always outperform attempts to game the system.”

Another beneficial way AI could help candidates in the future, is interview preparation. “Interviewing is an infrequent experience for many, so it can be nerve-wracking,” said Ms Ebbs-Brewer. “In the future we foresee an AI interviewer will be able to role play with an applicant and coach them on how they perform.”

AI could also be used to make the administrative process more efficient and even reduce bias, but Ms Ebbs-Brewer has concerns about the latter. “On the one hand, AI tools can perhaps reduce bias, for example, cleansing CVs of data which could create unconscious bias for humans in the hiring process, before a hiring manager initially reviews them.” But, on the flip side, she added: “AI actually making a choice to exclude an applicant might be biased due to the data the AI was trained on.”

Ultimately, Ms Whitecross believes that AI will not fundamentally change recruitment: “As long as humans are doing the work, humans will want to select humans. Being sentient, humans are more capable than AI to judge who is best suited to work with them.”

The post Authenticity trumps AI in job market appeared first on RG Magazines.

“I had 57 tours,” he said. “It was a challenge and so we ended up doing, my assistant and I, two open houses, one on one Sunday, one on the next. My prior record for sales for anything like that was 36.”

The property sold, subject to contract. Many offers came in “way, way lower” than the asking price, even from those approved for mortgages of $900,000-plus. Mr Rego said prospective buyers putting in low bids were unlikely to be successful in the current buoyant climate.

“They say the best time to buy real estate is yesterday, because long ago maybe it would have been worth a figure in the $700,000s but the market, just like the stock market or anything else, it goes up and down and it’s supply and demand.”

Mr Rego said the interest in the Devonshire property was indicative of the state of the island’s residential housing market, with its serious lack of inventory — particularly in the affordable and mid-priced brackets — and ready supply of buyers and renters.

“It’s been interesting because we’ve actually had, even with less listings, more transactions [in 2025],” he explained. He doesn’t necessarily expect that to change in 2026.

“Definitely, over the last few years and to this very day, when we are listing great properties at certain price points, in certain locations, they are going to absolutely fly off the shelf,” he said.

Mr Rego, agency manager at Rego Sotheby’s International Realty, predicted that land for residential development would be harder to come by, with most lots at Riddell’s Bay in Warwick, the Pampas Estate in Smith’s and White Crest Hill in Hamilton Parish having been snapped up.

“There’s going to be a significant reduction in the amount of land sales going forward, almost indefinitely,” he said.

“We’re going to go back to seeing hardly any land sell because there’s not much [in] 21 square miles. There are hardly any further opportunities unless people carve off a section of their own property.”

Mr Rego suggested there was little incentive for developers to build affordable housing here because of the “significant rise in construction costs, materials and labour”.

He said of those building new properties: “Why would they rent it or sell it for a low cost when they’re not going to be able to recoup their own build costs?

“That’s something that needs to be figured out with the Government, for different incentives [for developers].

“There’s a lot of derelict properties … on the island, so maybe there’s other opportunities for Government or charity; maybe public and private sectors can do something.”

Alex DeCouto, co-chairman of the construction division of the Chamber of Commerce, suggested the Government needed to get inventive to deal with the dearth of affordable housing.

“It is just not possible to develop housing at affordable prices in Bermuda,” he said. “Incomes have not kept up with prices. All the usual incentives — duty relief, land tax, stamp duty, etc — would not even make a dent in it.

“This is why no one is developing homes at all. Even the luxury houses tend to be detached from feasibility — i.e. the cost of land plus construction frequently exceeds resale value. They get built because they can afford it anyway.”

Mr DeCouto, president of construction firm Greymane, added: “The only solution is for Government to play a significant role in housing development.

“They should follow the Singapore model. The Singapore Housing and Development Board build subsidised public housing and over 80 per cent of residents in Singapore live in one of these units.”

Mr DeCouto said timely statistics were hard to access so he focused mostly on high-level information about permitting from the Department of Planning when making predictions for construction for the coming months.

“Planning applications, happening six to 12 months before work starts, are seeing a slight decrease this year, which may be indicative for next year,” he said.

“Building permit applications, happening two to six months before work starts, are tracking slightly above the two-year average, broadly indicating we are relatively busy.”

Mr DeCouto noted that the 2024 employment survey showed only a 4 per cent increase in employment in the industry over 2023.

“For us to get to 2008 levels of employment in the industry there would have to be a 61 per cent increase, to put things in perspective,” he said.

He anticipated that the first half of 2026 “will be as busy as we have been for many years”.

“The two office buildings in town and work at Southampton Princess and Rosewood will be sites that are driving this,” he added. “The second half of 2026 is hard to picture.”

He said a lot was still unknown about certain projects, such as the Fairmont Southampton.

“They have permission for lots more residences but it’s unclear when and at what pace they will build them.

“There is an expectation that Government will be looking to invest proceeds of CIT [corporate income tax] in capital projects. I will be waiting to hear their intentions.”

Mr DeCouto urged the Government to continue to be co-operative in relation to work permits for developers because “our workforce is shrinking” and to invest in the planning department.

“I am seeing that AI is making the work of code compliance and plans review much more efficient and we need to invest in that technology,” he said.

He advised the Government: “Continue to make the island attractive to foreign investment, then stay out of the way!”

The post High costs, low inventory appeared first on RG Magazines.

In an interview with The Royal Gazette in 2010, Mr Richards said: “Take a B52, a bomber that’s designed to fly into high-risk situations. It has eight engines, so if one or two or even three fail, the plane can still fly. But in single-engine Bermuda, we have to avoid the risks that larger countries take because if our one engine stalls, we’re going down. That single engine is international business.”

In the year Mr Richards made those comments, IB represented 25.6 per cent of Bermuda’s gross domestic product and employed 11 per cent of the workforce. By 2023 IB’s share of GDP had edged up to 29 per cent, while the industry now directly provides 15 per cent of full-time jobs.

In 2024, the international business sector paid $1.78 billion to its island-based employees, a new record high, according to data from the Department of Statistics. This represents a remarkable 41 per cent of Bermuda’s total employment income earned by 15 per cent of the workforce.

It is worth emphasising how the IB sector’s value goes beyond the firms themselves. The Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers’ annual economic substance survey for 2024 shows member firms’ on-island spending — on compensation for staff, business services (such as legal, accounting, IT, consulting and recruitment firms), real estate, travel, entertainment and charitable donations – totalled more than $1.2 billion in 2024.

The group of 30 or so international re/insurance firms in the survey were therefore injecting an average of $100 million per month into the local economy, a staggering sum.

 Many of the dollars paid in salaries, or to contracted local firms, are spent again and again in the local economy — for example, spending on mortgages, retail purchases, restaurant visits, travel, retail purchases, and rents. 

This so-called “multiplier effect” means the sector’s impact on the local economy is far greater than GDP statistics would suggest, given that IB dollars rippling across Bermuda drive the output of multiple other sectors.

This year the IB goose started laying a second golden egg, as the Corporate Income Tax — a 15 per cent levy on profits paid by Bermudian-based international companies with annual global revenues of 750,000 million euros ($870 million) or more — took effect. The tax was introduced as Bermuda’s response to the global minimum tax envisioned by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Pillar 2 initiative. 

The first CIT payments were scheduled to be paid in August. The Government has forecast CIT revenue of $187.5 million for 2025-26 and $600 million for each of the following two fiscal years.

While CIT filings are unpredictable and will fluctuate in line with the ups and downs of corporate profits, $600 million would represent the equivalent of a near 50 per cent boost to annual government revenues. With this seemingly too-good-to-be-true scenario comes the opportunity to pay down public debt, boost public services, upgrade infrastructure, shore up pension funds and bring tax relief to residents and businesses.

Ensuring that this extraordinary recurring windfall continues will depend on ensuring the CIT tax base opts to remain in Bermuda for the long term.

And the next step towards achieving that will be ensuring Qualified Refundable Tax Credits, structured to comply with OECD’s GloBE framework, are implemented. The Tax Reform Commission has already proposed a range of credits that reward local economic substance, initially aimed at the re/insurance industry.

 These credits would be awarded based on metrics such as employment and training of locals, investment in business innovation, infrastructure and housing, as well as consistent charitable donations over a substantial threshold. The Government tabled tax credit legislation in the House of Assembly in November.

Given that Bermuda needs investment in all of these areas, the credits themselves promise to be a boon for the local economy over time – additional to the tax revenue itself. They create incentives for big businesses to invest in badly needed housing developments, jobs and training for Bermudians, electricity and telecommunications systems and Bermuda’s nonprofit sector. 

The credits are essential for Bermuda’s competitiveness as an international business jurisdiction, because other jurisdictions, such as Singapore and Ireland, are implementing their own QRTCs as they strive to remain competitive as they revise their tax systems to comply with the global minimum tax initiative.

Another reason the stakes are high is that some of the small group of multinational companies in scope of the CIT provide hundreds of well-paying local jobs. 

A perception among this group that Bermuda is doing too little to reduce the cost of doing business would be costly for the island in terms of employment, if re/insurers respond by relocating corporate functions, or even head offices, to other locations within the group.

John Huff, Abir’s chief executive officer, said in the press release on the Abir survey: “ABIR members look forward to gaining greater clarity on the full impact of the CIT, as the Tax Reform Commission’s recommendations on reforms including tax credits are considered by Parliament. Reducing Bermuda’s cost of doing business is critical to create a more favourable environment for job retention and job creation for Bermudians.”

Likewise, Christian Dunleavy, chairman of the Association of Bermuda International Companies has warned of the impact of the CIT on Bermuda’s competitiveness. 

“We are in a perpetual race to enhance our value proposition and competitiveness while safeguarding our reputation, particularly with a diminished tax advantage,” Mr Dunleavy said at ABIC’s annual meeting in November. 

“In today’s world capital and people are incredibly mobile. Standing still is falling behind. As the saying goes, it’s OK to look backwards, just don’t stare. We need to continue to move Bermuda to the future.”

The analogy of the one-engined plane is probably even more apt today than it was when Mr Richards said it. 

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As the clock ticks towards the iconic hotel’s grand return this spring, measures are being put in place to make it a success, from improving airlift and local transportation to getting good staff in place.

For the Bermuda Hoteliers Association, these are exciting times.

“It’s great news that the Fairmont Southampton will be reopening,” said chief executive Stephen Todd. “It’s been no secret that we’ve been concerned about our overall room count since its closure. Once it comes back online, it will provide us with much-needed additional inventory.

“We’ll be able to indicate to our international travellers that Bermuda is back on the radar, and we can focus on getting back that business that we provided to our business and leisure visitors. It’s critical and very important to us.”

Kiaran MacDonald, the Fairmont’s regional vice-president, Caribbean, and general manager, pointed to an “incredibly strong” level of energy and anticipation across the team.

“Many of our colleagues have a deep personal history with Fairmont Southampton, so there’s a genuine sense of pride and responsibility in being part of a return,” he said.

“This excitement is paired with a very focused mindset – ensuring every detail, touchpoint and guest experience reflects the elevated standards long upheld by Fairmont Southampton.”

He said the reopening would reintroduce Bermuda’s largest driver of group, conference and incentive travel, who visit year-round and boost on-island spending and demand for airlift.

It will also spark increased activity for local suppliers, transportation services, restaurants and attractions.

“The economic benefit extends far beyond the resort itself and contributes meaningfully to the broader Bermudian economy,” he said.

The Fairmont Southampton, of course, is far from the only show in town.

There’s optimism surrounding plans for expansion work at Grotto Bay and a new development at the Elbow Beach property by The Loren at Pink Beach. Even without the Fairmont, Bermuda tourism has enjoyed a resurgence since the dark days of Covid-19: more than 110,000 visitors flew to Bermuda on vacation in the first nine months of 2025, a slight drop on the 112,000 in the corresponding period of 2024, but an improvement on the five-digit figures of the previous few years.

Yet, the Fairmont is regarded as the difference-maker. When it closed during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the island not only lost its 600 rooms and ability to host major business conferences – it also lost the sparkle of glamour and pulling power of its grand-daddy hotel.

A spokeswoman for the Bermuda Tourism Authority said: “The reopening will be one of the most significant catalysts for Bermuda’s tourism growth in more than a decade, increasing the total room count by about 25 per cent.”

Other advantages, she said, include the ability to host events and sports groups; and the potential for more year-round group travel.

The redevelopment includes upgrades to guest rooms, public spaces and amenities, with a stronger emphasis on “modern comfort, wellness and the natural beauty of the South Shore”; dining and social venues have been modernised; the beachside location and outdoor areas have been improved.

Mr MacDonald said: “Locals will experience a resort that feels familiar yet elevated in all the right ways.”

Airlift

Skyport president Aaron Adderley highlighted industry concerns over airlift at the Bermuda Partnership Summit in October 2025, noting global challenges such as pilot shortages, delayed aircraft deliveries and supply chain disruptions.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Tourism & Transport, Culture & Sport, acknowledged Bermuda has struggled with “insufficient hotel inventory to support consistent year-round service”.

But she added: “Increased hotel inventory, particularly with the 2026 reopening of the Fairmont Southampton, will expand capacity and make additional flights more viable.”

Other efforts include strengthening relationships with major carriers to better understand their operational constraints and secure more stable service, including continuous Miami flights in early 2026, and growing flexibility from BermudaAir.

Transportation

The island’s transport system was identified as a major weakness during the Partnership Summit; BTA director of data strategy and insights Lamar Caines pointed to a “huge” issue of reliability and availability that could undermine visitor satisfaction.

Mr Todd told us guests had been frustrated by bus cancellations, but he was satisfied that the Government was addressing that matter.

“We need to ensure we have a collaborative approach with ground transport – ferries, buses, taxis – all working with the common goal to ensure we have a reliable and responsive system,” he said.

The Ministry spokeswoman said the Government is advancing “several modernisation initiatives” to meet visitor expectations, including the new ride-share concept set to be launched at the start of the new tourism season.

Taxi drivers have complained this initiative would undercut their industry, but the spokeswoman said: “This service is intended to complement, not replace, the existing taxi industry, which will remain the primary transportation option.”

She said the programme would be “closely monitored and adjusted” as needed.

Staffing

Mr MacDonald said the Fairmont is engaging with Bermudians at home and abroad to fill positions, while also sourcing talent through its global network.

They are being trained in systems, service culture, safety and brand standards so that the Fairmont can build “a diverse, strong and well-balanced team from the moment we welcome our first guests”.

He added that the Fairmont is balancing its own needs of maintaining quality with those of the wider hospitality community and other Bermudian businesses.

This point resonated with Mr Todd, who said it is anticipated that some of the former Fairmont staff currently working at other hotels would probably return to their first love.

“We want to ensure that we don’t satisfy a need in one area and create a void in another,” he said.

Mr Todd said his organisation would continue working with the Government and industry partners to ensure quality staff are in place across the board.

“You can’t charge a premium room rate if you are not providing the level of service that guests require,” he said.

Qualified candidates can register their interest at FairmontSouthamptonBermuda.com

The post Ready for lift-off appeared first on RG Magazines.

The TRC was appointed late in 2023, ahead of the implementation of the Corporate Income Tax, to recommend tax policy reforms to create a more transparent, fair, equitable and straightforward tax system.

Reducing the cost of living and cost of doing business was a particular focus of the TRC, which consulted with more than 500 people and 30 stakeholder groups during the research that led up to the publication of its report in September.

Business groups in Bermuda have long lamented the high cost of doing business as an inhibitor of economic growth and job creation. A particular concern is the taxes and benefits that come with employing someone, which mean that hiring a worker on a $100,000 salary will often cost a business more than $125,000 a year.

Employers pay the lion’s share of payroll tax, the largest single contributor to government coffers, expected to generate more than $621 million in 2025-26. They also pay half of their employees’ health insurance premiums, half of the social insurance contributions that fund the Contributory Pension Plan, as well as forking out an additional 5 per cent of an employee’s salary to contribute to their occupational pension plans.

Lightening the load of some of these obligations would make hiring people less expensive and make Bermuda more attractive as a place to locate employees and teams. 

And CIT revenues – although highly unpredictable – promise the fiscal flexibility that would allow the Government to lower those costs. The TRC laid out practical ways this could be done.

To help manage the uncertainty of CIT revenues, the TRC proposed a “waterfall” funding allocation model, listing recommendations in order of priority.  Only when higher-level priorities, such the debt sinking fund, are substantially funded do funds flow down to lower priorities.

Some of the recommendations that could most directly impact local businesses include:

Employer payroll tax

In addition to reductions in employee payroll tax, the TRC proposed capping the rate paid by employers at a maximum 7%, potentially falling further to 5%.

Under today’s graduated regime, larger employers pay higher rates of employer payroll tax. Companies with a total annual payroll of $1 million or more pay a 10 per cent rate, except exempt companies, which pay 10.25 per cent.

For a company in the 10 per cent bracket, a reduction to 7 per cent could result in a significant saving – for example, a local business employing 30 employees on an average salary of $80,000 would save $72,000 a year, rising to $120,000 if the rate was reduced to 5 per cent in future.

The TRC estimates the Government would see a fall of $68 million in payroll tax revenue resulting from the reduction.

Employer health insurance subsidy

Some countries levy a tax to pay for a public healthcare system. In Bermuda, we pay premiums to private health insurers, but the effect is the same as a regressive tax — in that those on low incomes need to pay a higher portion of their income to get access to the same level of healthcare as higher earners. 

This tax-like impact, coupled with the significant and increasing impact of health insurance as a cost of doing business, persuaded the TRC to include it in their recommendations.

Global healthcare inflation is in double digits, according to tracking by Aon and WTW. In Bermuda, health insurance increases are driven by increased use of health services by our ageing population, an ever-increasing range of drugs and treatments, and chronic diseases linked to unhealthy habits.

The TRC has proposed a refund of 25 per cent of employers’ Standard Premium Rate contribution — which amounted to $400.41 per policy per month in 2024. The full payment would continue to support the healthcare system — the refund would be paid separately by the Government.

Health insurance represents a significant portion of employment costs, particularly for lower-income workers. The TRC’s research found that for a worker earning $60,000, the employer portion of health insurance is generally $3,000 to $6,000 per year, depending on the type of plan. A refund cutting this expense by approximately $1,200 per employee would cut the cost of hiring, with the hope this would spur job creation.

The refund would cost the Government approximately $19 million annually, says the TRC. The Commission adds that the recommendation is designed to be a temporary measure, pending developments with the Government’s progress towards Universal Healthcare.

Elimination of Foreign Currency Purchase Tax

Nearly all goods sold to consumers in Bermuda — from groceries and clothing to building supplies and pharmaceuticals — are imported. This means paying overseas suppliers in their own currency, which necessitates changing Bermudian dollars into foreign currency — a transaction subject to the 1.25 per cent Foreign Currency Purchase Tax.

It may not sound much, but it adds up: the Government projects it will take in almost $33 million in FCPT in the current fiscal year.

The 1.25 per cent exchange charge adds to an importer’s cost base. As the TRC Report notes, by the time the goods go through successive profit margin mark-ups in the wholesaler-retailer local supply chain, the impact on the price paid by consumers is likely to be more than 1.25 per cent.

Utility tax relief

Businesses in Bermuda all consume electricity to varying degrees. Anything that reduces Belco bills will benefit every sector of the economy, as well as consumers.

The TRC has proposed eliminating customs duties on electricity production and removing employer payroll taxes for utility bulk electrical generation, resulting in an estimated decrease of $8 million in government revenues. 

Since the rates Belco can charge have to be approved by the Regulatory Authority — which considers the utility’s cost base as part of the formula — then the TRC-proposed savings for Belco will be passed directly onto customers.

If all of these measures are implemented, their combined impact has the potential to deliver a significant overall reduction in the cost of doing business for many local companies.

The post How tax reforms can bring down cost of doing business appeared first on RG Magazines.