Another top Lloyd?s of London insurer has called on the British Government to cut the taxes paid by insurers or risk seeing the London insurance market go offshore.

The Financial Times reported last week that Dane Douetil, chief executive of Brit Insurance, said tax charge paid by London-based insurers and reinsurers must be substantially reduced if the London insurance market is to withstand the threat from Bermuda.

He said: ?If the government does not take action now, the London insurance market will go the same way as our manufacturing tradition ? offshore.?

The corporate tax charge should be cut from 30 percent to a maximum of ten percent for reinsurers and for London market insurers that provide cover for risks emanating from outside of the UK, said Mr. Douetil, whose firm is one of the largest at Lloyd?s, and one of the few that has not set up a Bermuda subsidiary.

Without a tax reduction, the Financial Times reported Mr. Douetil saying that London market insurers and reinsurers would find it impossible to compete with Bermuda, where companies enjoyed a tax rate of virtually zero.