Tough new laws to protect company pensions from the risk of raids by crooked bosses are set to be introduced.

The safeguards are set to be introduced as part of a massive review of pensions in Bermuda launched by the Ministry of Finance.

That means new dependence on private pension plans run by employers will be brought forward in tandem with fresh laws to ensure the cash goes where it's supposed to -- retired employees.

And a new Pensions Commission will be set up to oversee provision for old age on the Island.

It is understood Minister of Finance Grant Gibbons -- at a major insurance conference in San Diego -- will reveal the results of consultation with the insurance industry on the new plans in the near future.

Ministry of Finance official Peter Sousa said yesterday: "We do want to cut down on even the smallest possibility of fraud.'' Mr. Sousa added that there were legal remedies available under the existing pensions law, which dates from the 1960s.

He said: "The Registrar General does look at applications and reviews them in terms of how the plan is being structured.

"And one of the things they look at is how the funds will be held.'' But he admitted that pension provision had changed enormously since the current legislation was introduced -- and not all company pension schemes are registered.

Argus Insurance is the biggest provider of private pension plans in Bermuda.

Chief Executive Officer Gerald Simons said he welcomed mandatory pensions, minimum contribution levels, portable pensions and the protection of assets -- all of which appear in the draft bill.

He said added firm broadly welcomed the draft -- but would be seeking clarification of some details from the point of view of ease of administration.

Mr. Simons said he would also be making points about the affordability of pensions for some sectors of the economy and that he would be trying to ensure good pension planning procedures are followed.

He added: "One of the things which impresses me is the call for segregation of pension plans and an insistence on the high quality of the people looking after them.'' Mr. Simons said: "We haven't had many problems with pension plans going astray -- and pension plans with insurance companies are protected in other ways.'' The proposed new legislation comes in the wake of worldwide fears over supporting an increasingly long-lived population from contributions made by a shrinking workforce.

The number of people aged 65 and over by the end of the first decade of next century is expected to be 72 percent higher than the 1970s figure of 3342.

And in the 1980s, there were buyouts of firms in the US and UK, not for the companies themselves, but for access to their huge pension funds.

And Britain's Mirror Group Newspapers found itself missing multi-millions of dollars after it emerged after boss Robert Maxwell's death that he had milked the pension fund to shore up his crumbling business empire.

Laws in both countries governing the management of pension funds have since been toughened.

According to Government's Green Paper on the pensions issue, the proposed National Pensions Scheme (NPS), is designed to boost -- not replace -- the existing Government-run Contributory Pension Fund.

The Green Paper said: "The NPS will require that all pension assets be segregated from the working capital of the employer's business....one of the principal complaints about some unregistered schemes was that many are funded from working capital.'' That means that employees' pension benefits are carried on the firm's financial records -- and could disappear if a firm collapsed.

The Green Paper added: "In these instances, if the business fails, then the pension assets will be absorbed in the failure and the pension benefits will cease.

"This type of risk is associated with self-administered and unregistered pension plans and there are a number of such plans in Bermuda.'' CONFERENCE CON