Bermuda-based writer and Royal Gazette columnist Roger Crombie has been named "best regular columnist in the United States" by the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE).

The award was for his monthly "Roger on Risk" column Risk & Insurance magazine. The awards ceremony and dinner is being held at ASBPE's National Editorial Conference in New York City on August 2.

Founded in 1964, ASBPE is the professional association for full-time and freelance editors and writers employed in the business, trade, and specialty press.

ASBPE is widely known for its annual Awards of Excellence competition, which recognises the best in editorial, design and online achievement.

Mr. Crombie, who is a chartered accountant, covers the Bermuda insurance market for a number of publications in Bermuda and overseas. He has a regular column in The Royal Gazette on Saturdays on the subject of personal finance.

"This is really an award for Bermuda, since I write most often about Bermuda in the Risk & Insurance column," he said. "Before me, Kevin Stevenson was the Bermuda correspondent for several overseas publications and he did sterling work for them.

He paved the way for others in the field of insurance journalism in Bermuda, and we miss his influence to this day."

Mr. Crombie is also the Bermuda correspondent for Risk & Insurance.

His last story was on changes to Bermuda's labour laws, featuring Premier Dr. Ewart Brown on the cover.

The pony-tailed writer has covered the Bermuda insurance market locally and internationally since the mid-1990s, not long after eight property catastrophe companies formed on the Island in what is now known as "The Class of 1993".

Since then, Bermuda has gained significant international coverage for its role as an international financial services centre, in part thanks to the efforts of local journalists in getting the word out.

Mr. Crombie's work has appeared in Forbes, Business Week, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Economist and 60 other publications, although the great majority of his journalism has been published in this newspaper and its' sister, the Mid-Ocean News.

Mr. Crombie is also the humour columnist for rg magazine and a frequent contributor to The Bottom Line.

"On a personal level. I am utterly astonished and deeply grateful to everyone who has helped me in my second career," said Mr. Crombie.