Bermuda registrations rise 18.6%; W.R. Berkley casualty reinsurance net premiums written fall 25%

Bermuda insurance-related registrations rose 18.6% in the latest quarter, according to Bermuda Monetary Authority figures, with intermediaries and Class E long-term vehicles identified in the data as the growth drivers.

The two registration categories the figures break out moved in opposite directions. Class E long-term registrations rose to nine from three a year earlier, while restricted special purpose insurers fell to 13 from 16.

Net those two categories together and the change is a gain of three registrations: six added on the Class E side, three removed on the restricted SPI side. The figures give the total as a percentage change rather than a count, so the two categories cannot be sized against the 18.6% headline directly.

Registrations measure licensing, not capital. The data records that Class E long-term vehicles went from three to nine; it does not say how much business any of those entities writes, so the tripling is a tripling of a small number before it is anything else.

W.R. Berkley's casualty reinsurance net premiums written fell 25% in the third quarter of 2026, to $144.2 million from $192.7 million a year earlier, according to the company's third-quarter results.

Management guided to roughly 10% to 20% further shrinkage in casualty reinsurance. The guidance does not specify the period over which that reduction would land.

If it applies to the same quarterly comparison, the arithmetic is plain. Ten percent off $144.2 million is $129.8 million and 20% off is $115.4 million; at the 15% midpoint the line would write $122.6 million, about 36% below the $192.7 million reported a year earlier. That is the scale of the step management has put on the table, before any further guidance.

The two datasets answer different questions. Berkley's figure is premium written on one line at one company; Bermuda's is licensing activity across a registry, weighted by the data's own account toward intermediaries and long-term Class E vehicles. The registration figures do not show whether any of those new entities will write casualty reinsurance, and the Berkley guidance covers volume, not where the business being given up goes.