Over 100 jobs are in the pipeline in the new wave of insurance companies setting up on the Island following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

So far five large new companies have set up, with a sixth expected to be announced any day now. Together they are expected to have a total of $6.3 billion in capital.

With premiums soaring and certain insurance no longer available, there has been an increase in the number of companies and captives interested in coming to the Island.

These new firms are part of the third wave of insurance capital heading to tax-free Bermuda in the past 20 years.

In the mid-1980s ACE Ltd. and XL Capital Ltd. were set up by Marsh and other US investors to provide big-ticket liability insurance as large court awards dried up coverage in the US.

In the early 1990s, six major reinsurers were set up to soak up demand for large-scale property catastrophe reinsurance after Hurricane Andrew. Those reinsurers included Renaissance Re and Partner Re.

The attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre are said to have cost insurers between $30 and $60 billion dollars and is the most expensive the industry has ever seen.

And as a result many companies have hiked prices and some have moved out of reinsurance altogether leaving a capacity gap now being filled by the new wave.

All the companies have been attracting some of the top names in the business, with more expected to follow in the coming months.

Arch Re appears to be the company that will employ the largest number of staff. In an interview with Business Insurance, the new company's boss said that he would be starting with half a dozen people and intended to keep his staff to no more than 50.

Arch Re has raised over $1 billion in capital and is all set to take advantage of the upcoming January renewals.

The company said it will be doing broad-based multiline reinsurance, but may also move into finite risk products, which were a specialty of chief executive officer Paul Ingrey's last company, F&G Re. Axis Re, set up by insurance broker Marsh and McLennan, is the largest of the new firms with a capitalisation of $1.6 billion.

And it could become a large employer with about ten staff to start with, moving up to about 30 in the future.

The size of the Endurance Speicialty Insurance Ltd, set up by Aon and Zurich Financial Services, is still not known. But it is the second largest by capitalisation, with $1.2 billion as its target and could have a sizeable staff.

Montpelier Re, set up by White Mountains, will start with ten staff and move up to 30 in later years.

But the number of staff may go up further if there is the need and expansion in business - and the company certainly have the space with 10,000 square feet of office space in two separate offices in Hamilton.

The first to set up for business was DaVinci Re, but because it was set up by Renaissance Re, the company projects it will have the fewest number of employees - under ten.

The fact that Renaissance was already established helped the company into the fast track to incorporation. Its licence was granted on November 5 when it was ready to do business and the new company reached its target capital of $500 million on November 15.

And it has been given two "A" ratings - unusual for a start-up - but as it is backed by Renaissance Re, got the ratings from Standard & Poor's and A.M. Best.

James N. Stanard, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Renaissance Re Holdings Ltd. will also now be CEO of DaVinci, and the senior management of Renaissance will also take on similar positions at DaVinci. State Farm has also backed the venture.

The company will be in the Renaissance Re building on Crow Lane and according to Mike Merritt, but will employ less than ten staff in the new venture as it will lean on the existing business and workforce at the Crow Lane offices.

He said: "We could lever off our existing structure to be up and running quickly. We were the first to be capitalised."

The biggest employer may be from a company that has not yet even been revealed. Murmurs new mega-insurance venture which is believed to rival ACE and XL in size is said to be poised to set up shop.

The company, which has not been named, is said to be a joint venture between US insurance giants American International Group Inc, Chubb Corp and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Originally it was believed it would employ some 200 people on Island, but now this figure seems to be exaggerated.

and will capital of more than $1 billion.

The Royal Gazette understands that the three companies will invest about $500 million to form the business.

Sources close to the companies said it was going to be a huge property and casualty business and expected to attract top ranking insurance executives from around the world.

It would become the sixth insurance company to have set up in the past month to take advantage of conditions in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the US.

Rumours have been rife on the Island since the Bermuda Angle said that plans were afoot for a new large insurance company to take advantage of the lack of capacity and higher rates in the property casualty markets following the World Trade Center attacks.

But new rules that mean shareholders of publicly traded companies have to know the same information issued to media, which means that leaks cannot be confirmed by the organisations involved.