The Nevada Division of Insurance (DoI) received a flood of captive licence applications in December, with five new captives receiving licence approval by year-end.

In addition to the licensing of NV Energy’s captive NVE Insurance Company on 21 December, the DoI approved applications from 3M Assurance, ARA Assurance, TTG Insurance Co and KMD Insurance.

“December was a very exciting month,” said deputy insurance commissioner Mike Lynch. “We took in a total of 15 new company applications, 14 of which were ready to receive their certificates of authority.

Of the remaining applications, one was received on 30 December and is expected to be licensed later in January and the other nine, all of whom are affiliated, requested to postpone their approval until after the first of January.

“At this time, we are projected to issue these certificates of authority in the first half of January 2010. Additionally, Nevada DOI is expecting as many as 17 more new applications in the month of January,” said Lynch

Nevada, which has seen captive formations stall in recent years, currently licenses another 125 active captives which generated more than $1m in premium tax and fee income for the state in 2009.