In 1784, the Bermuda Marine Assurance Company issued its first policy to cover a shipment of cargo from Bermuda to Philadelphia. As the trade between Bermuda and North America expanded, British insurance companies were encouraged to appoint and support general agents in Bermuda.

In 1903, a group of Bermudians formed Bermuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company for the sole purpose of insuring fire and marine risks within Bermuda.

Not until after the Second World War was the next insurance company started, Kitson Insurance, in 1947.

Argus Insurance was established in 1950 through a need for medical insurance and formed the Somers Isles Insurance Company.

Colonial Insurance Company was founded in 1958, developed from The Gibbons Company car dealership, as they thought they might as well insure the cars they sold.

The international insurance sector in Bermuda really only started in the 1960's when the idea of captive insurance companies was born.

Up until that time the overseas insurance industry controlled the terms, conditions and rates of the global insurance marketplace.

Large companies like Coca Cola realised that if they formed their very own insurance company, they not only knew what their risks were, but could also keep and invest their own premiums (cash) and keep it in their own companies if they did not have any claims within the year.

The person who invented captive insurance was Fred Reiss, who happened to meet two Bermudian businessmen overseas and they suggested he bring his idea to Bermuda.

From that single idea captive insurance became the bedrock of the Bermuda international insurance industry.

Today Bermuda remains by far the largest centre for captive insurance in the world with over 1,200 captive insurance companies, managed by more than 40 captive management companies.

As the insurance industry started to grow, Bermudians realised that it needed to be regulated properly and in 1978 the Insurance Act was passed by Parliament.

Following this, the Insurance Advisory Committee (IAC) was established, made up of people representing insurance companies, legal firms and Government regulatory agencies such as the Bermuda Monetary Authority.

The committee members meet every week and over the years have made sure that Bermuda's insurance regulation continues to be well-designed to make it easy to create companies, while at the same time having strict controls to ensure companies have more than enough money in reserve to cover all claims.

In 1985, ACE was formed by a group of 34 US companies to provide third-party liability coverage to protect them against the risk of lawsuits.

They were unable to buy this type of coverage elsewhere because of the very large awards being handed out by the US legal system - people slipping on supermarket floors; suing fast-food restaurants for their coffee being too hot, etc.

The next year XL Capital was formed, based on the same principles as ACE. This was the beginning of the next stage of Bermuda's development as an insurance centre.

In the 1990's companies found that there were not enough insurance companies to insure everything they wanted risk coverage for, so once again Bermuda provided the infrastructure necessary to allow new property catastrophe reinsurance companies to form.

Mid Ocean Reinsurance was the first property catastrophe reinsurance company formed in response to this severe lack of capacity.

Bermuda authorities knew that with the increasing amount of insurance and reinsurance capital on the Island, there needed to be strong rules for conducting business, so the IAC continued to update the Bermuda laws.

By 2000, the Bermuda insurance marketplace had built a reputation for being innovative.

Therefore, whenever companies or clients were in search of solutions to their problems, they came to Bermuda.

The increasing number of global insurance and reinsurance companies with a head office in Bermuda has continued to cement the Island as a major insurance hub.