In a bid to attract more insurance business from Latin America to Bermuda, a Bermudian lawyer has been extolling the Island's virtues in the global scene to a joint meeting of two powerful risk management organisations in the region.

Policies introduced by some governments in Latin America have denied companies in the region full opportunities to use the Bermuda insurance and reinsurance market.

Encouraging business leaders to lobby against those policies was part of the presentation and message delivered by lawyer Warren Cabral, managing partner of the London office of Bermuda law firm Appleby, and the Bermuda Insurance Development Council in Sao Paulo this week.

And a decision to deliver the Bermuda presentation in Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish delighted the audience at the joint meeting of ALARYS (Latin America Risk Managers) and ABGR (the Brazilian Association of Risk Managers).

Helping the Bermuda cause was Jorge Luzzi, global risk manager of Pirelli International Group, and described as a "long-time friend of Bermuda" by the development council's David Fox.

Mr. Luzzi personally introduced the Bermuda presentation.

Speaking to delegates, lawyer Mr. Cabral said: "To you, Bermuda is a market, not unlike Lloyd's of London, rather than merely a tax haven. That view is echoed in this month's Global Reinsurance magazine by Lloyd's itself, where a senior officer refers to Bermuda as being an essential market which complements and partners with the London market to provide essential capacity.

"He said that Lloyd's has a lot to learn from Bermuda in terms of modern methodologies of underwriting."

Mr. Fox told The Royal Gazette that Appleby has made substantial investment in developing the Brazilian market, and Mr. Cabral had devoted the past 18 months to improving his Brazilian Portuguese.

During this week the Bermuda contingent in Brazil have been speaking with business leaders and promoting Bermuda with a kiosk at the Expo Riscos 2007.

Amongst those taking part, other than Mr. Luzzi and Mr. Fox, is Marcelo Ramella who is assistant director for research at the Bermuda Monetary Authority and Eduardo Fox, Appleby's manager of corporate and Latin America affairs.

Mr. Ramella pointed out to potential Latin America clients that Bermuda's captive insurance market's ability to combine strength and growth, retaining its captive leadership with three times as much business or gross premium writings as its closest competitor the Cayman Islands.

Appleby's Mr. Fox told the conference that Bermuda founded the first captives for companies in Spain and Portugal and is the captive domicile for the largest Latin American companies.

He said: "Some 50 percent of all Latin America and Ibero American captives are in Bermuda. And Bermuda is also in the right place at the right time for reinsurance, as the reinsurance monopoly in Brazil held by the state-run IRB is scheduled to officially end on January 1."