The latest available figures show that Bermuda’s insurers had aggregate total assets of USD440.4bn, which represents a 33% increase over the USD329.9bn achieved the previous year.

The market also continued to enjoy strong results in terms of gross premiums written, which amounted to a total of USD115.8bn for the year, surpassing the USD100.7bn written the prior year. Of these amounts, captives accounted for USD72bn in total assets and almost USD22bn in gross premiums written.

A total of 71 new insurance and reinsurance companies were established in the Bermuda market during 2007, compared to 82 in 2006. The fall in registrations reflected the generally softer market conditions globally, which saw a slowing of captive incorporations.

In such conditions, companies typically are able to purchase reinsurance coverage at competitive rates in the traditional commercial markets.

The majority of the new Bermuda market entrants for 2007 were once again Class 3 insurers, a combination of captive and commercial companies. With respect to the commercial sector, 2007 saw the formation of two Class 4 companies.

This reflected the general inactivity in the property and casualty market, and the relative lack of major catastrophic events during the year, resulting in the likely record profitability of existing insurers and a sufficiency of global capital in the property/casualty sector.

“We were very pleased to see that the tradition of quality business coming to Bermuda was maintained with the companies that were successfully established here during the year,” observed Jeremy Cox, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the BMA, who is responsible for all supervisory activities conducted by the Authority.

“The high quality of the sponsors behind the companies, in addition to the continued increases in premium volume written that we have been recording over the years, indicates that market confidence in Bermuda as a leading centre for international insurance and reinsurance remains strong."

"There is also a continued appreciation among those who participate in this market of Bermuda’s effective, practical regulatory environment,” he added.

The BMA continued to place emphasis on enhancing its regulatory standards and operational capability during the year, to maintain effective regulation of Bermuda’s growing market.

“We recently restructured our supervisory teams, added an actuarial team, created a risk and policy team and set up a run-off team,” Cox continued, further stating:

“Key areas of supervision, such as our on-site programmes and risk-based capital adequacy regime are being expanded and refined. Overall, we are steadily enhancing the depth of technical skills and resources that we have within the Authority, as well as building on our existing compliance with international standards in terms of our regulatory framework.”

The Authority has stated that such measured expansion reflects its growing responsibilities as a risk-based financial services regulator.

Further enhancement of its operational capability remains a key objective for the body, while maintaining Bermuda’s balance between effective regulation and on-going business development.