Finance Minister Paula Cox says there is no conflict of interest between her Government post and her private sector job as a lawyer for a Bermuda-based insurer under increasing US regulatory scrutiny.

Ms Cox, who has served as corporate counsel for ACE Limited since 2002, last night said she was not involved in any legal work in connection with any of the 43 subpoenas, interrogatories, civil investigative demands and letters of inquiry from 15 different US states that ACE revealed it had received in a filing last month with US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Ms Cox was asked yesterday if she felt there was any conflict in her dual role given the increasing regulatory scrutiny of ACE, given that the Finance Minister has ultimate oversight of the laws under which the Island?s financial services sector is regulated through the Bermuda Monetary Authority.

?No, at this stage I do not consider there to be a conflict between my role as Minister of Finance and my employment as Corporate Counsel at ACE Limited, the holding company,? she said.

?I always keep under review my employment position, notwithstanding that we do not currently have full-time Ministers. This way if circumstances warrant and I consider that my continued employment is prejudicial to the Government or ACE Limited then if appropriate, resignation is an option.

?Alternatively, I can always be removed as the Minister of Finance by the Premier if it is deemed that I am compromising the Government by my continued employment,? she added.

An ACE Limited spokesman said separately that ACE would let the Minister ?speak for herself? on the matter.

An announcement at the time of her appointment to ACE, said Ms Cox would have responsibility for legal support at the parent company level, as well as corporate governance services to ACE Limited subsidiaries.

Yesterday Ms Cox said: ?The ACE Group has a number of lawyers and legal counsel who act as general counsel/legal advisers for the various subsidiaries based in Bermuda.?understands that Government relinquished much of its control over the Island?s regulatory process following recommendations from a KMPG regulatory report for the British government some years ago.

At the time, regulatory control for the Island?s financial services companies was put in the hands of the BMA. However, the Finance Minister still sets the economic framework within which the BMA operates.

In addition, it is the Finance Minister who bears responsibility for defending the reputation and credibility of the Island?s financial services companies, including being responsible for drafting and taking to the House of Assembly legislation that affects international companies, including Bermuda-based insurers like ACE. And it is these laws that are ultimately the ones under which the BMA operates.

ACE has been the subject of various regulatory inquiries since being named in a damning civil suit by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer against leading broker Marsh & McLennan last October, that alleged an illegal bid-rigging scheme between Marsh and several insurers it placed business for, including ACE.

Marsh settled the matter by establishing an $850 million fund for US victims of the sham to rig bids to create a false appearance of competitive prices for business, but only after ousting CEO Jeffrey Greenberg, who is the brother of ACE CEO Evan Greenberg.