Little has come from the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality (CURE) Act 2001, claims the latest edition of the Captive Insurance Company Report (CICR).

The August edition of the report - which is planned, written and edited by consultants Tillinghast-Towers Perrin and published by International Risk Management Institute Inc. - includes an article entitled: "Heard from Bermuda", which briefly examines the new CURE legislation.

The article says that while attending the fifth International Captives Congress (ICAP), held in Bermuda from June 12 to June 15, the CICR investigated the out CURE Regulations and their influence on the industry.

The article describes CURE as: "Government-mandated requirement that companies with over ten employees must track the statistics as to the racial mix of its employee population."

The article also says that, in the past, collection of this information was not allowed and that, informally, the Government has already made an attempt to get companies to encourage more racial diversity in the finance businesses which is similar to other offshore captive domiciles.

CICR then says: "From what we heard, these statistics will be used in future discussions with business as to how racial diversity will be achieved by business.

"However, one local source doesn't believe that this report has teeth right now since there are no quotas or punitive requirements for non-compliance. At most it requires more paperwork.

"Therefore, little seems to have come from the Act so far."

The first company to be prosecuted under the new CURE regulations hit the headlines last week when Paget Drycleaners - the first to plead guilty in Magistrates' Court to failing to submit the required forms - was fined $500.

Appearing on behalf of the company, Amatullah Bashir claimed the company's faxes had been going to the wrong location.

Other companies failing to comply with the regulations included TCC Drywall Ltd., Precision Construction Ltd., Pemco Ltd. and Refco Capital Markets.

Companies that did not register with CURE - just eight companies out of 400 - face fines up to $1,000 while those failing to submit forms detailing the racial and financial breakdown of their company can be fined up to $5,000.

And CEO of STW Fixed Income, William Williams, who last year urged companies to boycott the regulations, said this week that he was prepared to live up to his promise of paying up to a $5,000 fine for any predominantly-Bermudian owned companies who are fined for refusing to file or for filing forms with incomplete or deliberately confusing information.

"All they would have to do is let me know that the fine is a financial hardship," he said at the time.

His comments were condemned by MPs at the time, and his company's relocation to California was hailed as a good thing" by Telecommunications Minister Rene Webb.

Mr. Williams told The Royal Gazette this week that he no longer follows the developments in Bermuda and that the controversy surrounding CURE was all in the past.