You could say that IPCRe is a dwarf in comparison to its 1993 compatriots RenaissanceRe and PartnerRe.

But that isn't something that seems to bother IPC's management. Company CEO James Bryce, who was also the company's very first employee, told The Royal Gazette from his Richmond Road offices in the AIG building, that the company took its limited growth as a point of pride.

But when Mr. Bryce makes that point he is really talking about the company's streamlined operations, not its actual business.

The company outsources its administrative work to AIG - its largest shareholder with the insurance giant holding 24.3 percent of IPC Re's shares - and only does its underwriting in-house.

Mr. Bryce said the result is that IPC has, in ten years, only grown to 15 and one-quarter employees-the one-quarter being a part-time consultant.

Business wise the company has no reason to hang its head, it has written more than $1 billion in property-catastrophe during its first decade and says things have never been better. That good news follows the company taking its worst hit ever in 2001 with a $112 million loss resulting from terrorist attack on New York's World Trade Center.

Indeed, Mr. Bryce, said after a decade in business, IPCRe is in its strongest financial position.

On a risk-adjusted basis, the company claimed it had a stronger balance sheet than any of its competitors with no goodwill, no intangibles, no debt and no real reinsurance recoverable issues, Mr. Bryce said. IPC was the brainchild of American International Group (AIG) legend Maurice "Hank" Greenberg. Like others in the industry, Mr. Greenberg saw a ripe opportunity for getting into the property-catastrophe reinsurance market following the large losses after Hurricane Andrew.

He picked Mr. Bryce, who was then based in AIG's London office, to take that opportunity and run with it. Neither have looked back with Mr. Bryce successfully opening IPC's Bermuda headquarters in the Summer of 1993.

Today, the company is unique in that it is the only company left from the 1993 cat pack to remain strictly focused on the writing of property-catastrophe reinsurance. In total, IPC's book of business is more than 90 percent comprised of this core area. But both Mr. Bryce and CFO John Weale told The Royal Gazette that had been the company's recipe for success. And it was a road it vowed to stay on as long as its shareholders, who were very happy with the way things were going for IPC, remained in support of its present course.

When asked if the company may consider diversification, Mr. Bryce said: "No, if anything we have revalidated what we have been doing. Diversification was a great idea until September 11. But now it is being rethought."

Throughout the company have kept their A+ ratings from both Standard & Poors and AM Best, not an easy feat with many other insurers seeing their ratings slip on the back of poor investment environments and concerns over reinsurance recoverables.

Mr. Bryce said: "We belong to a very exclusive club. Following September 11 there were only a handful of companies that did not have changes in their rating, or who have not been put on a credit watch. Neither of those things happened to us."