BERMUDA Law and Practice Contributed by: Oliver MacKay, Michael Frith, Kyle Masters and Jennifer Haworth, Carey Olsen
insurers must pay greater attention to how insureds collect, secure, transfer and respond to breaches of personal information. In underwriting, this encourages closer scrutiny of cybersecurity controls, incident- response plans, third-party providers, data sensitivity, and regulatory compliance, with corresponding effects on pricing, limits, exclusions, and information require- ments. The BMA’s 2025 cyber-risk reports emphasise board oversight, third-party risk, monitoring, security controls and response and recovery arrangements. In claims handling, cyber-incidents require prompt investigation, preservation of evidence, assessment of notification obligations, and careful management of affected individuals, regulators and vendors. Litiga- tion and coverage strategy increasingly focuses on causation, aggregation, business interruption, data restoration costs, ransomware payments, regulatory liabilities, and the scope of cyber, privacy, war and technology exclusions – although Bermuda-specific trends remain difficult to quantify because many insur- ance disputes are resolved through confidential arbi- tration. 8.4 Data Centres The rapid growth of data centres may create property, business interruption, machinery breakdown, cyber, professional liability and environmental exposures. Relevant issues include power demand, cooling-sys- tem failure, fire, water damage, network interruption, physical security and cybersecurity issues, service dependencies, and aggregation across shared infra- structure. 8.5 Social Media Risk There is not yet clear evidence of Bermuda-specific litigation concerning social media addiction or related mental health impacts, but international claims alleg- ing that platform design, algorithms, and AI-driven features encourage compulsive use are emerging as a potential casualty exposure. Bermuda insurers and reinsurers may therefore scrutinise technology com- panies’ product design, age safeguards, governance, and historical exposure more closely, while reviewing limits, exclusions and aggregation language under general liability, product liability, technology errors and omissions (E&O), media liability and D&O poli-
cies. Claims and coverage disputes are likely to focus on causation, foreseeability, occurrence and aggre- gation, policy-period allocation, intentional-conduct
exclusions, and defence costs. 8.6 Next Generation Nuclear
There is not yet clear evidence of Bermuda-specific claims or reported disputes arising from small modu- lar reactors or fusion technology. However, these developments create evolving property, construction, machinery breakdown, business interruption, environ- mental and third-party liability risks, alongside uncer- tainty concerning licensing, nuclear liability regimes, multi-unit aggregation, supply chains, waste man- agement, and decommissioning. Existing insurance frameworks were largely designed for conventional reactors, while the appropriate coverage for smaller or non-traditional designs may vary according to reactor size, technology, fuel, coolant, and operating model. 9. Legislative and Regulatory Key Trends 9.1 Regulatory Focus Areas and Supervisory Trends The BMA supervises insurers’ prudent conduct of business and has wide-ranging enforcement powers. Its Insurance Code of Conduct expects timely, fair and transparent claims handling and requires insurers to avoid aggressive, coercive or discriminatory prac- tices. Bermuda insurers must also address capital, solvency, governance and risk-management require- ments, including climate-related financial risk. 9.2 Forthcoming Reforms and Market Impact The BMA has proposed reforms covering expanded conduct-of-business requirements, AI governance, internationally active insurance groups, parametric special purpose insurers, and a phased resolution regime. These are likely to strengthen governance, disclosure and oversight of automated or outsourced claims processes, as well as encouraging clearer policy wordings and resolution planning, rather than immediately changing Bermuda’s established cover- age principles.
40 I NSURANCE L I T IGATI O N 2026
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