Bermuda's insurance giants ACE and XL have made it on to a prestigious list of global insurance companies.

The insurance trade magazine International Risk Management has published Standard & Poor's top 200 Global Business Insurers in its latest issue.

In first place is the American giant Zurich (US), followed by Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance plc and then American International Group.

The list, which is judged by the amount of net written premium, has ACE Ltd at number 77 with an A plus rating, and XL coming in at 154 with an AA rating.

ACE USA (CIGNA) Group was placed at number 44. The publication states: "Standard & Poor's fourth top 200 ratings survey aims to identify the world's most important global business insurers today.'' In the last published survey Tokio Marine Fire & Marine occupied the top slot, but has been now pushed to fourth place.

Second slot taken by Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance has pushed Lloyds from the spot to fifth place. The top ten insurers are writing $96 billion of the total, compared with $84 billion last year. They also hold a greater share of adjusted shareholders' funds -- $105 billion. Last year the figure stood at $73 billion.

ACE Ltd net premium worth -- the amount of insurance written -- is listed as $881 million while its adjusted shareholders' funds stand at $3.714 billion.

Other ACE companies listed are USA-based ACE USA (CIGNA) Group which comes in rated higher than its parent company at 44. The company is given an A plus rating, a net premium worth of $1.665 billion and has adjusted shareholders' funds at $1.75 billion.

Belgian-based ACE Insurance SANV was listed at 102, with an A plus rating, and a net premium worth of $644 million.

XL Ltd has an written $317 million of insurance and has $2.479 billion in adjusted shareholders' funds.

ACE, XL on prestigious list The Standard & Poor's ratings are classed from AAA for extremely strong, AA for very strong all the way to CC for extremely weak, with plus and minus signs shown to rate them within these groups.

Zurich Group (US) has a AA plus rating in its pole position as leader of the pack, while PT Asuransi Jasa Indonesia at 196 has a rating of CCC minus.

An insurer rated BBB or higher is regarded as having financial security characteristics that outweigh any vulnerable parts of the business.

Ratings in the bracket BB to CC are considered to be in the `vulnerable' range and CCC is very weak and CC extremely weak.

Top of the world: The graph shows Standard & Poor's top global business insurers today. ACE come in 77th and XL 154th. NPW stands for Net Premiums Written, ASF stands for Adjusted Shareholders' Funds.

CHART STANDARD & POOR'S TOP 20 GLOBAL BUSINESS INSURERS AND BERMUDA'S TOP 2 BY NET WRITTEN PREMIUM