Bermuda has some unique challenges in regulating its insurance market, Lloyd?s of London chairman Lord Levene said.

Bermuda?s insurance market, 50 years in the making, contributed roughly 20 percent of the Island?s GDP of more than $4 billion in 2004.

?Clearly you have to be very, very careful how that works and I think the regulator here has got a helluva job because you are not just regulating the insurance industry you are regulating 20 percent of the economy,? Lord Levene, chairman of the world?s oldest insurance market said.

Lord Levene said he had on a previous visit met with the chairman of the Bermuda Monetary Authority, the Island?s financial services regulator.

?If you talk about regulation in Bermuda compared to London, regulation in Bermuda is much slicker than in London,? said in an interview coinciding with his visit to the Island to take part in a panel discussion at this week?s World Insurance Forum.

?That doesn?t mean to say I think it is lax but it is slicker and it is easier, and hopefully it is adequate.?

Lord Levene, who has visited Bermuda more than half a dozen times over the last four decades, has recently been facing questions about whether Lloyd?s, the world?s oldest insurance market, is losing out to rivals like Bermuda, since several Lloyd?s members set up units in the Bermuda market late last year (see separate story in today?s business section).