Bermuda will see an increase in outsourcing predicted business leader David Ezekiel at the opening of the International Captives Congress yesterday.

Mr. Ezekiel, who heads IAS Park Ltd, said Bermuda was not at its limit but was approaching critical mass.

He said: ?It think we will see an increase in outsourcing from physical presence companies with other services providers.?

He said his own company had picked up such business after 9/11. Some of the outsourcing could go overseas because of the limit of personnel said Mr. Ezekiel who is also chairman of the Association of Bermuda International Companies.

He predicted a lot more interplay between captives and the insurance industry in Bermuda. ?That is something you would have expected to have happened a lot more already.?

He said a softening of the market would speed up the process. Mr. Ezekiel told delegates at the Hamilton Princess he didn?t see a good future for captives writing third party non-related business.

Employee benefit business was finally starting to happen said Mr. Ezekiel after long being muted. He said business would have to accept the new restrictions of corporate governance and he said Jeremy Cox at the Bermuda Monetary Authority was doing a good job with sensible regulation.

Bermuda faced strong competition from Vermont and South Carolina but the Island was still the number one jurisdiction said Mr. Ezekiel as he told delegates looking at the island that it had been the best place to do business for the last 20 years.

This message had been echoed earlier by Premier Alex Scott who pointed out Bermuda was the largest captive domicile in the world with 30 percent of captive registrations with more than 1,200 captive companies incorporated.

?Today captives are an everyday tool,? said Mr. Scott. ?Not long ago they were seen as an esoteric concept known only to a select few. That is no longer the case, due in part to their availability in many jurisdictions.?

Captives had been integral to Bermuda?s growth said Mr. Scott. ?Bermuda is not only the world leader in the captive insurance company industry but we can also lay claim to the invention of the concept.

?In fact, it was a member of the Bermuda insurance industry who is recognised around the world as the father of the captives. I speak of none other than Mr. Fred Reiss, the American businessman based in Bermuda who developed the concept in the 1950s.?

A partnership between Government and business had kept Bermuda ahead of the game despite competition from America said Mr. Scott. ?The critical mass of insurance and reinsurance capacity available in the Bermuda insurance market is of enormous benefit to risk managers.?

Bermuda?s legislation had helped said Mr. Scott. ?With the advent years ago of the rent-a-captive concept Bermuda facilitated segregated account private act companies and subsequently developed the Segregated Accounts Act to allow the establishment of segregated account companies without the added expense of the private act approach.

?Bermuda has a pivotal role to play in meeting the needs of the industry for the successful management of risk and loss.

?As the concern about terrorism remains high, the focus is now moving more towards issues of protection and security.?

Mr. Scott pledged continued Government support and repeated his commitment to keeping British law, even if Bermuda goes for independence.