The Island?s largest insurers contributed nearly 20 percent of the Island?s total tourism sector spending last year.

Figures compiled by the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers, an organisation established in recent years to represent the interests of the Island?s most major insurers, show that its 22 member companies contributed $25 million to Bermuda travel and entertainment spending in 2005. And total spending, before employee salary costs and benefits, topped $115 million.

The group?s tourism-related spending was drawn from meals out, taxis, flights into Bermuda and business entertainment, said ABIR president and executive director Bradley Kading, in an interview where he revealed the findings of the 2005 survey.

The $25 million spend adds up to 18 percent of total tourism spending last year, which rose 6.9 percent to $140 million, according to Government?s Bulletin of Statistics.

How much was paid into the local tourism market by the Island?s biggest insurers doesn?t account for the total contributions made by the sector with more than 1,400 insurers doing business here.

It does however give a sense of the significant contributions the industry makes.

And the contributions made by these 22 are likely a significant portion of the total, with these companies being the most highly capitalised.

Insurers and reinsurers are required to maintain a certain ratio of capital to premium, meaning that those with the most capital are often the biggest players.

Standard & Poor?s, in its Global Reinsurance Highlights Report 2005, reported that 13 of the world?s top 40 reinsurers are based in Bermuda, and Bermuda is the fourth largest reinsurance market in the world after Germany, the US and Switzerland.

Of the Island?s 1,400 insurers and reinsurers ? both large and small ? Mr. Kading said the multi-line, global re/insurers, licensed in Bermuda as class four companies, most of which are ABIR members, hold 40 percent of the Bermuda industry?s total capital and surplus. That figure, in 2004, was $44 billion, he added.

In total, the ABIR group last year contributed more than $115 billion to the local economy, before employee expenses.

The Association of Bermuda International Companies, another leading organisation that represents the wider interests of international companies doing business on the Island, in a survey last year put salaries paid out in Bermuda in the region of $1 billion.

Around the world, ABIR?s member companies employ about 10,000 staff. Of that, 1,500 employees are based in Bermuda, and 65 percent of those (965) are Bermudian or spouses of Bermudians.

While only 15 percent of ABIR companies? staff are based here, the Island is the companies? top priority when it comes to social contributions, Mr. Kading said.

In 2005, the companies made charitable contributions totalling $8 million, more than half of the $15 million given out by these companies worldwide. And donations favoured educational initiatives and charities. The sector is also known for its generous scholarship programmes.

Another $23 million was spent out in Bermuda last year on business services. Mr. Kading said this included costs for legal, accounting, actuarial and I.T. services.

The Island?s booming real estate and construction sectors can also thank the Island?s largest insurers.

Last year, the 22 companies that contributed figures to ABIR?s survey poured $60 million into this sector.

More than half that figure came from the construction of the new office building being constructed at AIG?s Richmond Road address, which is to be a headquarters to Allied World Assurance.

ABIR?s survey isn?t going to be an annual exercise, The numbers are a way to ?get a handle? on the contributions the sector makes, Mr. Kading said.

ABIR, which counts its revenues from membership dues, has a primary mandate of working with Bermuda and overseas regulators.

The association hired Mr. Kading, who has a quarter-century of regulatory experience, last year after deciding ABIR needed to have a voice to match the major market presence of its membership.

ABIR draws its chairman and deputy chairman from two of the largest in the membership. Brian O?Hara, chief executive of XL Capital, is ABIR chairman and Michael Butt, chairman of Axis Capital, is deputy chairman. The organisation is also based in XL?s Bermudiana Road building.

ABIR?s membership in recent months has grown from 18 to 22 member companies, with a number of the Island?s newest reinsurers ? the so-called ?Class of 2005? ? already signed up. ABIR?s newest members are: Ariel Reinsurance, Flagstone Reinsurance, Harbor Point, Hiscox and Lancashire.

And ABIR?s founding members are: Ace Limited, Allied World Assurance Company Ltd., Arch Capital Group Ltd., Aspen Insurance Limited, Axis Specialty Ltd., Catlin Insurance Company Ltd., Endurance Specialty Insurance Ltd., IPC Re, Max Re, Montpelier Reinsurance Ltd., Olympus Re, Partner Reinsurance Ltd., Platinum Underwriters Holdings, Ltd., PXRe, Quanta Capital Holdings, Renaissance Reinsurance Ltd. and XL Capital.

About 70 percent of ABIR?s members are publicly traded: 14 of the 22 trade on the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq or London Stock Exchange.

And one more, Hiscox was formed by a London-listed insurer, Hiscox Plc.