The future success of the Bermuda insurance industry will depend on its ability to develop and attract top quality personnel, the latest graduating class of mostly market professionals was told.

The director of education and training at the Bermuda Insurance Institute (BII) Peter Doyles told a record 48 recipients of ten insurance designations that the growth in interest in insurance education has been driven by the continued strength of the industry.

He said, "This market of approximately 1,500 insurance companies now ranks as one of the world's leading insurance centres. That's a great position for us to be in. But it carries a price.

"In fact, the market's global prominence places an awesome responsibility on the shoulders of the professionals it employs and on the Institute and on all those engaged in insurance education.'' Mr. Doyles warned: "The future success of the Bermuda insurance industry relies as much on the intellectual capital it grows and attracts as it does on the financial capital residing here. We must continue to invest in our people.

If we don't, we could risk losing our competitive edge as an international insurance centre.

"Clearly, products are important. But it's the people who develop them -- the people who make up our industry that differentiate us and give us our real distinguishing characteristics.'' Mr. Doyles also commented on the significant increase in the number of Bermudians who are seeking to be educated for careers in insurance, a consequence, he said, of the rising global prominence of the Bermuda market.

The number of insurance education award recipients is the largest in the 30-year history of the BII. Almost twice as many people qualified this year as last, and four times as many as four years ago.

Picture: Page 40 Peter Doyles BUSINESS BUC