A bill tightening up the regulation of Bermuda?s insurance business was passed in the Senate yesterday.

But it prompted one Senator to implore the Island not to ?dance to the tune of the International Monetary Fund?.

The Insurance Amendment Act 2004 came out of the IMF assessment of Bermuda and gives the Bermuda Monetary Authority more scope to function as an independent regulator.

It gives whistle-blowing powers by explicitly setting out the obligations for approved auditors to communicate certain matters as well as giving them legal protection.

But , who has worked with the IMF when he was at the BMA, said the IMF stereotyped nations but found Bermuda an anomaly to its world view, partly because they couldn?t gets statistics.

But, he cautioned, IMF advice had driven many a third world nation even further into the mire.

?There may be a certain eagerness in the new generation of Bermuda regulators to dance to IMF tune instead of concentrating on what is in the best long-term interests of Bermuda and Bermudian business.

?Bermuda?s insurance industry is here because it isn?t like that of the US or Europe. That?s why we have the business here.?

He said this Island?s ability to survive and thrive in the post 9/11 world had been proven as the industry wrote cheques for billions of dollars, while others went bust.

He said 9/11 had showed ?what we do here is real stuff.

?We need to bear that in mind, when thinking about dancing to the IMF tune.?

He said the regulators were calling for Bermuda to conform to the international standards but Bermuda was the international standard and as such was being targeted by aspiring politicians seeking to make political capital, such as New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Presidential flop John Kerry.

He said Bermuda?s regulations were tougher than in America. ?We continue to seem to be wanting to please.?

The growth in the BMA had been spectacular, said Sen. Richards, which was a concern.

He also expressed fears about a growth in the money supply in Bermuda which, he said, the BMA was not addressing.

said the IMF was learning about Bermuda through its review and he pointed out the legislation had been drawn up in consultation with the private sector.

And fellow , who introduced the bill, pointed out that growth in the BMA staff had been partly due to staff moving from the Finance Ministry.