The Bermuda Angle Conference kicks off its presentations from senior insurance and reinsurance executives today - presentations which will be available, for the first time, over the Internet.

The conference - which is going ahead despite the September 11 terrorist attacks - has attracted 160 insurance analysts from both the US and Europe. It is being held through tomorrow at the Fairmont Southampton Princess.

The conference - in its tenth year - brings publicly traded Bermuda-based insurance and reinsurance companies - ACE, IPC Holding, Trenwick Group, Max Re, Mutual Risk Management (MRM), Partner Re, Renaissance Re Holdings and XL Capital - together with insurance analysts.

The conference objective is to give analysts access to the senior executives of these companies, to ask questions and get up-to-date information on the company's financial positions.

Jim Teef, vice-president and controller of Max Re - which recently went public, and is participating in the conference for the first time - said it was specifically geared to the buy-and-sell side analysts in the investment community.

Of the decision to go ahead with the conference, Starla Williams, of the Select Sites Group, organisers of the conference, said the host companies, based on an overwhelming response from analysts - after the September 11 attack - indicating they still wanted to travel to Bermuda, decided they should go forward.

Ms Williams added that the host companies also felt it was important to carry on with business, as usual.

MRM CEO Robert Mulderig, said it was only natural that a large topic of conversation, at the conference, would be the tragedy, as it has had a huge impact on the insurance and reinsurance industry.

Mr. Mulderig said that although a number of other insurance conferences have been cancelled, in the wake of the terrorist attacks, the Bermuda Angle hosts felt it was important to be forthcoming and address the issues - although each company, he said, is only in the preliminary stages of analysing exposure to these events.

A number of the hosts said the decision to deliver presentations over the Internet was driven by recent regulations put in place by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The SEC, within the last year instituted more-stringent reporting regulations through the Regulation of Fair Disclosure (FD).

The companies are, in addition to traditional forms of disclosure, such as press releases, leveraging Web-based technology - and in particular, Webcasts - to bring conference presentations to a wider audience.

Mr. Mulderig said, in compliance with SEC's FD, companies want to make sure information is available to as wide an audience as possible.

"The companies can't selectively disclose important information - all information must be open to shareholders and the interested public," Mr. Mulderig said.

Wendy Davis Johnson, director of Global Communications at ACE Limited, although only able to comment on behalf of ACE's involvement in the conference, said: "We are pleased this function is going ahead. We feel it is the right thing to do, and the right time.

"As much as the company wanted it to go ahead, it is heartening that investors and shareholders wanted to come to Bermuda to meet with senior management. It is a great positive."

Presentations will be made, today and tomorrow, by Brian Duperreault of ACE, James Bryce of IPC Holdings, James Billett, of Trenwick Group, Robert Mulderig, Patrick Thiele, of Partner Re, James Stanard of Renaissance Re, Brian O'Hara of XL, and Robert Cooney of Max Re.