Once again Bermuda's praises have been sung at an international captive insurance conference.

Two senior figures in the island's captive management sector, Mr. Brian Hall, president of Johnson & Higgins (Bermuda), and Mr. Andrew Carr, president of Marsh & McLennan Management Services (Bermuda), told a conference that the world's captive insurance industry, and Bermuda's position as its undisputed leader, face a bright future.

Mr. Hall and Mr. Carr were among members of an expert panel reviewing international captive domicile strategies at the 1994 Hawaii Captive Insurance Forum in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Bermuda, with over a thousand captive companies on its register, will remain the insurance domicile of choice well into the next millennium, said Mr. Hall.

The Bermuda market was well positioned to accommodate strategic global captive programme to the year 2001 and beyond, he said.

Mature Bermuda-based captives are now "spawning sister companies in other domiciles'', such as Dublin and Barbados, he said.

"We are seeing more global networking of Bermuda captive facilities'', which included sessions on captives' business operations, as well as tax, legal and accounting issues, said Mr. Hall.

Mr. Carr said recent US court decisions are at odds with the IRS' historical attitude to tax deductibility of premiums paid to captives. This "should encourage more US clients to consider captives''.

Captive industry growth prospects are also expected to be helped by UK and European corporations becoming "more comfortable in retaining higher levels of risk''.