Two Bermuda insurance and reinsurance companies are opening new units outside of the Island, while the world's biggest company $2.2 trillion Citigroup has confirmed staffing levels at its Bermuda office have been scaled back this year.

There is no indiction that either Aspen Insurance or Flagstone Re's decisions to branch out in Ireland and Dubai respectively are anything other than corporate growth strategies, despite coming in the wake of recent reports of discontent within the Island's international business community about a number of issues including work permit difficulties.

Citigroup has confirmed to The Royal Gazette that earlier this year it reduced its Bermuda office staffing levels and said the decision was made "to improve client operations."

For Flagstone Re the opening of an office in Dubai is a clear move to tap into a growing centre for finance and insurance in the Middle East.

However, the decision by Aspen Re to locate its new excess casualty unit in Dublin, raised eyebrows as Bermuda has an established market for such business. But the company yesterday said choosing Dublin rather than Bermuda had nothing to do with reported international business concerns about operating difficulties within Bermuda.

Aspen's new unit is expected to be generating premiums of around $70 million within three years and is due to start underwriting from late November after its leader Bob Patton joins the unit on November 15.

Speaking from London, Julian Cusack, chairman of Aspen Bermuda, said the choice of opening the unit in Dublin, rather than Bermuda, was made because the new unit's team of up to 10 - including Mr. Patton - is already based in Ireland and it made more sense to keep them there rather than transport them to the Island.

Dublin has emerged as a significant insurance and financial centre in recent years and Mr. Cusack pointed out that the excess casualty business being written in Bermuda and Dublin is comparable and significant in both locations.

"The team that we have hired is a team that is based in Dublin. That is where they live. There was no business reason to ask them to relocate," Mr. Cusack told The Royal Gazette.

He said there was no other reason for the Dublin decision, and said Aspen, which has offices on the corner of Par-La-Ville Road and Church Street, "still has complete confidence in Bermuda."

The company reported assets of $7.1 billion at the end of June and gross written premiums of $1.1bn. It currently has wholly-owned subsidiaries and offices in Bermuda, France, the US, UK, and Switzerland.

Chris O'Kane, chief executive officer of Aspen, said: "The opening of the Dublin office reflects Aspen's strategy of continuing to selectively diversify our business portfolio and complements our existing operations in specialty casualty insurance within our specialty lines segment.

"I am delighted to welcome Bob and our new underwriting colleagues to Aspen."

In March of this year financial services company Citigroup, which is recognised by Forbes as the world's largest company with assets of $2.2 trillion, cut its Bermuda staff.

Although The Royal Gazette received an unconfirmed report that staffing at the company's Washington Mall office had dropped from 70 at the start of the year to around 30 today, with some of the Bermuda operation shifting to Toronto, a spokeswoman for Citigroup was unable to confirm the number of job losses in Bermuda or where the jobs had been relocated.

She said: "There was a staff reduction in March. We are constantly looking at ways to improve client operations and how to reduce fixed costs and improve client service."

The New York-based company employs 332,000 staff globally.

Meanwhile Flagstone Re, which was set-up in the wake of the 2005 hurricane season, yesterday said it had been granted authorisation from the Dubai Financial Services Authority for its subsidiary Flagstone Underwriters Middle East Limited to operate in the country.

The new office will be in the Dubai International Financial Centre and be headed by CEO Irshied Tayeb, who joined Flagstone in July.

According to Flagstone the new office will focus on regional property, property catastrophe and specialty line business within the Middle East region.

Flagstone chairman Mark Byrne said the capacity offered to the new office would be from the company's Switzerland-based subsidiary Flagstone Reassurance Suisse SA.

Nasser Al Shaali, CEO of the Dubai International Financial Centre, said: "Flagstone is recognised for its cutting-edge technical excellence and industry expertise and brings specialised expertise to the reinsurance sector at the Dubai International Financial Centre.

"Flagstone is a welcome addition to the reinsurance industry already established here and reflects the growth and development of this field in the Middle East."