Insurance analysts - on the Island for the Bermuda Angle Conference, which continues through today - voiced scepticism of some local insurance and reinsurance companies in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Senior insurance and reinsurance executives, from four of the eight Bermuda-based companies hosting the conference - ACE Limited, IPC Re, Mutual Risk Management (MRM) and Renaissance Re - made presentations yesterday.

Those presentations included estimates of each company's exposure to the September 11 tragedy and forward looking statements on each company's current and projected financial positions - including equity and access to capital.

The company's financial positions - and access to further capital, as necessary - came under analyst scrutiny, as these conditions must be favourable for the insurance and reinsurance companies to be able to go forward with writing insurance policies, in an industry that is seeing an events-driven demand for its product.

The Royal Gazette spoke with a number of analysts at the conference - all of whom asked not to be named, as they do not wish to "tip off" their competitors to possible future actions.

The conference, which is taking place three weeks after the catastrophic terrorist attacks is also being hosted by Trenwick Group, Max Re, Partner Re and XL Capital. In attendance are 160 buy and sell side insurance analysts from the US and Europe.

The analysts are looking at several areas, including: 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 is subject to additional reinsurance coverage.

John Weale, IPC Holding's chief financial officer (CFO) was one of the conference presenters.

Mr. Weale told The Royal Gazette the capacity to write additional business, with improved terms and conditions, is determined by the amount of capital, as the amount of risk should not be greater than the available capital.

Mr. Weale said: "We (at IPC) have our own internal restrictions which limit the business we write going forward."

Mr. Weale said analysts had asked IPC if it felt it needed more capital, and he said a range of opportunities were currently under consideration.

Companies are having to carefully look at their capacity, as the market grows. According to Mr. Weale, demand for insurance was growing even before September 11 - with a ten to 20 percent growth rate forecasted - the growth rate is now anticipated to exceed 20 percent.

Following ACE's presentation, a number of analysts remained sceptical of the company's recoverables situation - the September 11 loss is estimated at $550 million, but the gross loss is greater than $1.7billion.

ACE's estimate of a loss of $550 million depends on a payout, through the company's reinsurance policies, of more than $1 billion.

But, ACE vice-chairman Don Kramer said: "When someone is sceptical, even with hard data, I don't see how we can change that."

Mr. Kramer added that the company is limited to what hard data, in relation to its reinsurers, can be made available as under contractual obligation it cannot disclose information, without the permission of the reinsurers.

ACE said it had been careful of who it had done business with - and that 98 percent of its reinsurers had a rating in the A range, or better. Mr. Kramer added that he had looked at the reinsurance policies, case by case, and none were imperilled by loss.

Mr. Kramer called the scepticism from some analysts, "as whipping up scare tactics", adding that ACE's stock went up five points yesterday.

"If there are sceptics out there, the rise in stock should give us some credibility. Everyone at the presentation wanted reassurance, but the scepticism is totally uncalled for," Mr. Kramer said.

Mr. Kramer said the company's ability to do business, in future, is strong and there is consideration of policy changes, including possible exclusion of terrorism from coverage.

MRM also came under analyst scrutiny - although some concerns over the company's credibility do not relate to the September 11 events. One critic questioned the lack of financial information in their presentation. MRM is the only company, presenting at Bermuda Angle, to not include the CFO in its presentation.

Meanwhile, concern was expressed from at least two local attendees, at yesterday's session, over lack of representation by Government.

One man, who wished not to be named - for fear of reprisals to his company - said Government is supposed to be the keeper of the flame, for international business, and yet there was not one regulator or Government official there yesterday morning.

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.

When asked if Government would follow the conference to ensure that financial regulations met compliance, Government said there was no doubt over these companies meeting regulations.

Picture: President George W. Bush is shown meeting with insurance chief executives including ACE Ltd. CEO Brian Duperrault and XL Capital CEO Brian O'Hara.