Bank gets tentative OK to fund benefits through captive

WASHINGTON—The Labor Department last week gave tentative authorization to BB&T Corp., a major Winston-Salem, N.C.-based bank, to fund employee benefit risks through the South Carolina branch of its Bermuda captive insurance company.

Under the proposal, life and disability policies written by the Hartford Life & Accident Insurance Co. would be reinsured through the branch of BB&T Assurance Co. Ltd., BB&T’s eight-year-old Bermuda captive. The South Carolina branch was licensed in July 2009.

BB&T, which reported $877 million in net income in 2009 and has more than 32,000 employees, says it is one of the nation’s 10 largest financial services holding companies, with more than $155 billion in assets as of June 30.