ATLANTA -- Premier Pamela Gordon learned of a resurgence in captives interest and how that could benefit Bermuda.

Ms Gordon was touring the exhibit hall of RIMS (Risk & Insurance Management Society, Inc.) Conference at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta yesterday.

She got the word first-hand from Fran Tucker at the Bank of Butterfield booth.

"I told her that we had quite a bit of interest from corporate representatives who stopped by,'' Ms Tucker said.

Stephen Kempe, Butterfield's executive vice president added, "In '96 we were a leading domicile in terms of increasing insurance companies and I have to say that with the interest we have seen this week, I would be very surprised if we don't carry that on. There has been a whole lot of interest in captives this week. A lot more than we've seen in the past.

"It should bode well statistically for the coming year.'' Ms Tucker said, "This is my third RIMS, and there is more interest this year in captives. There have been more people coming by who want to form a Bermuda captive.'' But reinsurers are also more intensely interested in seeking premium growth from captives in an increasingly competitive reinsurance market.

President and managing director of Bermuda-based captive manager, International Advisory Services, David Ezekiel, is quoted in Monday's Business Insurance: "We're finding a lot more people interested in becoming reinsurers for captives.'' He said reinsurers "are looking for quality business, and I think people are beginning to recognise that captive business is generally of good quality''.

He said that some of these reinsurers had never before served the captive market, others were returning to a market they previously abandoned and still others were Bermuda-based companies that were formerly mono-line `cat' writers.

And of the $17.3 million in gross premiums written by Bermuda-based insurer, Chubb Atlantic Indemnity Ltd., about 30 percent was reinsurance for captives, according to R. Lincoln Trimble, vice president, underwriting and property/casualty manager.

He said it was generally better business than conventional insurance. And Colin C. James, president and CEO of Bermuda-based reinsurance broker, Atlantic Security Ltd. said that captives buying reinsurance would find competitive pricing.

He said, "A lot of reinsurers are now more willing to provide an occurrence cover, whereas previously they would insure only on a claims-made basis.'' He also said, "Generally now, due to the very competitive conventional prices, captives are generally less interested in finite risk because people are laying off a greater degree of their exposures than previously.'' And Graham Pewter, president of Bermuda based Commercial Risk Reinsurance Co.

Ltd. told BI he had seen corporate buyers take years to become comfortable with changing from traditional to non-traditional reinsurance cover.

Roger Gillett, senior vice president of Johnson & Higgins (Bermuda) Ltd. said some captive owners were showing an interest in securitised reinsurance coverage.

BUSINESS BUC