Reflections On The 20th Anniversary Of PCCs

PCC legislation was first enacted in Guernsey in 1996. This was primarily to encourage growth of the captive insurance industry. In some jurisdictions a PCC is also known as a 'Segregated Accounts Company' or 'Segregated Portfolio Company'. The clear statutory intention of the cell regime is that the assets attributable to a particular 'cell' (a legal fiction) are not available to meet the claims of creditors of other cells (in and outside insolvency). Of course, 'cell captives' began their life well before PCC legislation was introduced through contractual arrangements that 'ring-fenced' specific assets from creditor claims against related assets. I first became professionally involved in the setting up of contractual cell companies in 1995. But admittedly only a statutory regime could provide the necessary certainty and predictability.