US underwriter Starr Companies is hoping to open a subsidiary in Malta as a base for the European Union.
Steve Blakey, CEO of Starr Companies' London market operation, said the carrier had applied to the MFSA for a licence to set up an insurer in Malta, which would then use passporting rights to reach the other members states – although not using a protected cell company set-up.
Reports in the international media say that the company hopes to be operational by January 1, describing Malta as “a popular jurisdiction for captive insurers” like Volkswagen, BMW and Renault.
The company has had a presence in the London market since 2006, when it began writing aviation business through Lloyd's Syndicate, however, the history can be traced back to December 1919, when Cornelius Vander Starr founded an insurance agency in Shanghai, China.