"complacent'' to clients, charged the publisher and editorial director of that business' leading publication, Business Insurance (BI).

"On being smug and complacent, to some extent -- sure, I've heard comments that people in Bermuda can be rather arrogant to their clients at times -- you're not AVIS anymore, you don't exude the `we try harder' attitude I used to see, a little of the old spark of `we try harder' would be nice,'' said Ms Kathryn McIntyre, who declined to be specific.

Proposed changes to the insurance laws have helped little and are considered a "public relations move'', she added.

Ms McIntyre challenged the group to remember that the insurance business is a service business and must be continually promoted.

Other issues that, according to Ms McIntyre, could impact on Bermuda's image, are crime, perceived or real, and Independence, as well as competition from other jurisdictions.

Ms McIntyre, who joined Business Insurance (BI) in 1977 and has followed, documented, even taken part in, the growth of Bermuda insurance business, made the comments at a Bermuda Insurance Institute (BII) sponsored luncheon yesterday at the Hamilton Princess.

She is also is a member of the Bermuda Insurance Symposium committee.

Yesterday's luncheon proved popular as about 175 people from the insurance industry, including several insurance company CEOs attended.

Bermuda is still fighting "ignorance and misinformation'', she added.

"I think that too often people involved in the insurance and reinsurance business in Bermuda get lulled into a dreamlike state about what the rest of the world thinks of what is going on in Bermuda -- there are those in the business who really know better but whose favourite past-time at the Rendez-Vous in Monte Carlo and other insurance gatherings is to engage in Bermuda-bashing. I've listened to Bermuda-bashing since I first came here in 1979,'' she commented.

Many risk managers, insurance company executives and some brokers, are saying the same things today about the Island's catastrophe reinsurance companies that she heard about the excess liability companies in the mid-1980s, according to Ms McIntyre.

"Yes I remember vividly hearing that ACE and XL (insurance companies) would never survive. They would go broke and fold up shop, was the prediction of many US-based brokers, insurers and indeed risk managers,'' she commented.

The world's insurance business feelings toward this jurisdiction range from not knowing where it is to jealously from New York, London, Zurich and Munich markets, according to Ms McIntyre.

When asked by Mr. Malcolm Butterfield, Registrar of Companies, how she thought the US congressional subcommittee's Dingell report, which took a few negative shots at Bermuda, would affect the Island, Ms McIntyre, noting that the committee had been disbanded: "None, it's history it's garbage -- federal regulation of insurance (in the US) is no where on the agenda, (now the focus) is about undoing government.'' Ms Kathryn McIntyre.