We claim to be "the world's risk capital" but can we quantify such a lofty statement?

The claim, which is actually the marketing slogan for the Island's insurance services sector, can be easily backed up but plans to make a higher standard of industry information available will make it easier to compare Bermuda's market in detail with its competitors.

Statistics show that Bermuda boasts more than 1,600 insurance companies and, at the end of 2001, total insurance assets for those companies stood at nearly $173 billion.

All in all, Bermuda's 50-year-old insurance market has become the most economically significant sector of the Island's expanding international business industry.

On a global scale, Bermuda is also recognised as a leading re/insurance domicile. But the latest statistics, including information on total premiums for re/insurers and asset levels for the industry, date back to 2001.

And the data is not currently broken down to include details on specific types of insurers as it is in some other recognised insurance jurisdictions.

But that should change soon with word yesterday that plans are underway to make more current and detailed information available.

Marketing chairman for the Insurance Advisory Committee (IAC) Roger Gillett told The Royal Gazette that it intends to hire third party research firms, yet to be named, to produce more detailed and up-to-date reports which will better delineate Bermuda's place as one of the world's top three re/insurance jurisdictions - alongside New York and London.

The push to revamp sector statistics follows the Island rebranding itself, earlier this year, from "the world's insurance laboratory" to "the world's risk capital".

Mr. Gillett said the move was in line with the Island's transformation from a captive insurance domicile in the early 1960's to a large, mainstream insurance market today.

Although the Island is still the world's leading captive domicile, it is also now home to scores of highly-capitalised insurance and reinsurance ventures, writing across many different lines.

Mr. Gillett said the new branding, which was unveiled in April at the 2003 Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) conference, not only underscored the Island's development into a powerful, global re/insurance force but also emphasised how Bermuda provided much needed risk capital after an influx of money came to the Island with the wave of new Island with the the wave of new reinsurance start-ups to fill a post-September 11 void in capacity.

He said the newly-improved data - the first reports are expected to be published by the end of the year - is intended to provide specific information on all sectors of the Bermuda insurance industry.

And, more detailed information will make possible is an accurate break-down of specific classes of insurers including captive companies - designed to insure the risks of its parent company or companies - and insurance and reinsurance ventures.

At the moment, regulatory statistics divide all insurance entities registered in Bermuda between four classes but as rating agency and research company A.M. Best pointed out in its 2002 report on the captive industry: "Bermuda does not provide further break-down making it impossible to determine the domicile's true number of captives."

The IAC marketing committee was formed in the early 1990's in response to other insurance jurisdictions setting up and launching aggressive advertising campaigns. It is a sub-committee of the IAC, with a budget of $900,000 funded by a two-thirds contribution from Government and the balance provided by the local insurance industry.

The Insurance Advisory Committee is appointed by the Minister of Finance, as required by Bermuda's Insurance Act, to advise both the Supervisor of Insurance and Finance Ministry on matters pertaining to the Act.

The committee is made up of representatives from the Island's business, professional and regulatory bodies.