The Bermuda Angle, 11 years on, has become a must-attend event for scores of insurance analysts.

This year, like last year, more than 150 buy and sell side insurance analysts have flown in from the US and Europe to press senior executives on the financials of their companies.

But that may be where the similarities between this year's and last year's conferences end. The thing on everybody's mind last year were the catastrophic events of September 11 and their bearing on the industry.

Some even questioned if the industry could survive under the weight of billions and billions in claims. With the 2001 conference taking place three weeks after the terror attacks, analysts were looking at insurance rates and the capacity for new insurance; how companies arrived at their estimates of loss from the September 11 attacks; and the company's recoverables - how much of each firm's gross loss was subject to additional reinsurance coverage.

This year the company's hosting the conference - ACE Ltd., IPC Re, Max Re, Partner Re, Renaissance Re and XL Capital - have largely proven their staying power by not only meeting their 9/11 claims obligations but stepping up to meet the wealth of business opportunities in the hard market that developed from the sudden void in capacity. But it is still a sector with its share of woes. Indeed two of last year's conference hosts - Mutual Risk Management and Trenwick - are conspicuously absent. Neither company would comment on the matter but Mutual Risk was delisted earlier this year from the New York Stock Exchange after posting close to $100 million in losses and a significant portion of Trenwick's business - specifically the in-force business of LaSalle Re - was taken over by new kid on the block Endurance Specialty.

But analysts still have a substantial checklist to go through with the remaining six. As investment markets continue to deteriorate, with underwriting discipline being scrutinised and in this post-Enron era - analysts are expecting companies to feed them as much information as possible.

It would also appear, based on the presentations given yesterday, that analysts want to be shown how companies will manage to deliver a return on shareholders' investments while the markets are in a slump.

And one other thing appeared to have changed this year over last - there is at least one regulator, head of the Bermuda Monetary Authority's insurance division Jeremy Cox, attending the conference. Last year, lack of Government or regulatory attendance came under fire from several participants.

But at the time, a Government spokesperson said there was a misunderstanding on the role Government plays in these conferences. "This is an internal briefing session, one would not expect Government to be there," adding that Government's function at these types of conferences would be to open or close the event.