Thirty years ago today the New York Times featured an article about Bermuda's emerging captive industry on the front page of its financial section.

The article, reprinted in The Royal Gazette today in full (see page 26), focused on how a ruling made by the United States Inland Revenue Service prompted captives to start reinsuring risks unrelated to their parent companies.

The 1977 ruling stated that captives must write third-party risks in order to be considered independent insurance companies from their parents.

Brian Hall, one of the pioneers of the Bermuda insurance industry, who was born in England but came to the Island at an early age, was one of the industry experts quoted in the article. Mr. Hall founded InterOcean Management in 1969 and served as president and chairman of Johnson and Higgins (Bermuda) Ltd.

Yesterday he reflected on how far the Island has come since it was featured on the front financial page of one of the most widely read newspapers in the world.

"I can't say with certainty that the article resulted in more companies coming to Bermuda," he said. "People were talking about coming down here anyway and they continued to look into it and create captives in Bermuda after the article. Bermuda was identified as the place to go."

Andrew Barile, who has more than four decades of experience in the industry leads his own company, Andrew Barile Consultancy Corp. and was quoted in the same article, said the impact of a New York Times mention cannot be underestimated.

"It gave the Island the credibility it needed," Mr. Barile said. "I don't think you can underestimate it, during that era CEOs across the US would read the financial section of the New York Times.

"I got calls from Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco — everyone wanted to know more about it. I think it laid out the facts on how companies could go about setting up a captive and I think it gave risk managers a push to get a captive started since the article listed other major corporations that already had Bermuda captives."

Mr. Hall said he noticed some interesting aspects in the article when he read it again yesterday: "Particularly the reference to the Bermuda offices being 'secretive and unregulated'. The Government actually passed the Insurance Act a year later in 1978 to ensure there were regulations on the Island."

Speaking of his comments in the article, that his company had no interest in being a "post-office-box operation", Mr. Hall said he believed he was spot on.

"Seeing that comment now, I am very proud," he said. "We made it clear that we were going to be a properly run insurance operation with underwriters, and a lot of clients appreciated that."

Mr. Barile believes the article gave a good prediction for things to come: "We said it would be a bonanza for Bermuda and that is exactly what it did. I think the Island has maintained its position as a leader in the industry but I think one of the main issues is that Bermudians need to be in management positions in captives."

And Mr. Hall believes that although Bermuda has grown into a jurisdiction which saw the captives on the Island valued at $72 billion in total assets and almost $22 billion in gross premiums written in 2007, little has changed.

"Bermuda was a leader in the captive industry, it was the first overseas captive jurisdiction," he said. "And I think even to this day — even though there are now several other jurisdictions — I think Bermuda still seems to be the flagship."