The majority of the Island's catastrophe reinsurers not only made it clear yesterday they are "here to stay'' but also that they will be around even after "two and a-half Hurricane Andrews''.

Five senior executives from the Island's eight catastrophe reinsurers told the Bermuda Market Briefing that they can confidently defend their credibility in the international reinsurance market.

And they said they could pay claims equivalent to two and a-half Hurricane Andrews in the same year before their capital even came into play.

Mid Ocean Re, IPC Re, Renaissance Re, Global Capital Re, LaSalle Re -- all of whom were represented on the briefing panel yesyerday -- with Centre Cat, Partner Re and Tempest Re have about $4.5 billion in capital and write 40 percent of the world's catastrophe capacity.

Mid Ocean Re president Mr. Michael Butt said Bermuda's catastrophe reinsurers would alsobe the only companies in the wordl capable of surviving after a catastrophe of that scale.

He estimated Mid Ocean will write about $1.3-$1.4 billion for this 12 months, with about $1 billion in the catastrophe area.

The Island's cat companies now write about 35 percent of the US risk and about one quarter of the world's non-US risk.

"We now have freedom of movement of capital, each of these eight companies is capitalised to an extent that was impossible about ten years ago,'' commented Mr. Butt.

"We look at $100 billion losses, that was unheard of four years ago,'' said Mr. Neil Currie, senior vice president of Renaissance Re.

And in the next "five to 10 years we will make large strides in analysing catastrophe exposure'', he added. Mr. John Dowling, president and CEO of IPC Re, noting keeping capital starts and ends with the quality of underwriting.

"Bermuda does not have to reengineer itself -- we have the opportunity to get things right the first time,'' he commented.

Some industry pundits claim Bermuda will produce excess of supply over demand and ultimately drive premium prices down is "nonsense'', he added.

"We have no past mistakes in our portfolio -- we will have an orderly and professional renewal season. For many Bermuda (cat re) companies this will be the first real renewal season,'' continued Mr. Dowling.

The credibility of the Bermuda market was established by companies like ACE and XL said Mr. Victor Blake, chairman and CEO of LaSalle Re.

Cat companies in Bermuda further defeat any doubt of the ability and willingness to pay out on a claim.

"The Northridge (earthquake in February, 1994) proved Bermuda's ability to pay -- willingness shouldn't be an issue,'' he added. "Concerns about offshore failures and scams are a smokescreen.'' "Having more than $4 billion in unencumbered capital has proven a significant advantage for the market here,'' added Mr. Lawrence Doyle, president of Global Capital Re.

But when asked where they thought they would be positioned at the year 2000, none would make a dollar value prediction but "certainly we are all looking at the next ten years...we are all very new,'' Mr. Blake added.