Management Society (RIMS) conference yesterday.

Mr. Michael Fisher, vice president of Bowring (Bermuda) Ltd. and the company's excess liability unit head, promoted Bermuda as the "one stop shopping capital for insurance''.

Mr. Fisher, whose company is responsbile for 80 major US clients, related how 79 of Fortune 100 companies have more Bermuda subsidiaries than include specialty insurance companies.

He noted the presence of companies such as ACE, XL, Starr Excess, CODA and others. Bermuda can offer the most sophisticated and extensive captive management services, supported by a high level of legal, banking and investment services.

He continued that the domicile offers the largest chunk of excess liability coverage available from anywhere in the world. He argued that Bermuda had consistent rates, which were not dependent of the whims of reinsurers. The emergence of a property catastrophe market had led to increased capacity, with the Island targeting a few specialised lines.

One advantage, he said, was that service brought a quick response time.

More than half the Fortune 500 companies have captives in Bermuda.

He said: "The captives have total written premiums of $15.1 billion.

That's $11.8 billion net, with total assets of $58.8 billion, and capital and surplus at $21.9 billion. Those are statistics from 1992.'' He also said Bermuda boasts the most experienced captive managers, with many captives dating back to the 1950s.

The strength of the Bermuda market also stems from the lack of any connection to the legacy of past underwriting problems. As new companies, for example, they would not have been involved with unrecoverable insurance problems of the past.

Mr. Fisher pointed out several other advantages of doing business with ACE, XL and other companies.

Bermuda had the highest capacity for directors and officers' excess coverage and the Island has also made its mark in finite risk.

Also addressing the seminar was Mr. Don Whitting, assistant director of corporate risk management at W.R. Grace in Boca Raton, Florida, who discussed how the Chubb group of companies had increased its capital in Bermuda-based Chubb Atlantic Indemnity from $30 million to $100 million.

The move announced last month, would see the company write write excess liability, directors and officers iability, bankers professional liability and property insurance.

Mr. Whitting also indicated that the minimal capitalisation for a company setting up in Bermuda is $20,000. And you can expect to incur anywhere from $40,000 to $200,000 in annual fees or administration. He described the local tax and insurance fee obligations as fairly minimal.

He said that when setting up a captive on the Island an important consideration was the regulatory environment.

"In Bermuda, the regulatory environment is friendly, although there are certain restrictions. Operating a captive insurance company in Bermuda requires applying the various solvency and liquidity requirements.

"If you, as a parent company operating a captive in Bermuda, treat your captives at arms length, you will not have any problems with the regulatory environment.'' There are disadvantages, he said. "The principle disadvantage to operating a captive in Bermuda is the repatriating of cash to North America.

"You can either send the cash back in the form of a dividend, but a dividend reduces your retained earnings. The other method is just to loan the money back to your parent, which can create a withholding tax liability in the US.'' But he said that Bermuda was a most important market and that if principles were not looking there, they should, because of substantial amounts of capacity available, very broad coverage, good financial stability and security and other factors.