Bermudian property catastrophe reinsurers have seen declining market share of the world `cat' business and they are quite happy about it.

RenaissanceRe is forecasting another fall in premium income in the coming year between eight to ten percent because of softness in price and increasingly aggressive underwriting by reinsurers in other jurisdictions.

But the Bermuda-based company's senior vice president and chief financial officer Keith Hynes stated, "Bermuda has shown the greatest discipline of any of the world markets. Bermuda's market share of the world catastrophe market is declining slowly as other markets, London, continental Europe, the United States show more aggressiveness and less discipline than Bermuda is showing.

"The Bermuda companies are doing a good job of assessing exposures and underwriting their business.'' Reinsurers believe that, barring a significant catastrophe, it will be sometime before rates recover.

Said Mr. Hynes, "RenaissanceRe and the other Bermuda companies are still enjoying very attractive financial returns and that is causing other reinsurers to want some of our business. It causes them to price more aggressively. The next big catastrophe will, once again, cause those entities which move in and out of the catastrophe market to get burned and back away again.''