It's been business as usual at Ace Ltd.'s Bermuda operations since the company redomiciled to Switzerland, according to the company's top executive on the Island.

Rees Fletcher, president and CEO of Ace Bermuda, said the employee head count in the global insurer's Woodbourne Avenue building had remained at around 250 since the change which saw Ace's holding company relocate from the Cayman Islands to Zurich last July.

"All parts of the business we have in Bermuda have operated exactly as they did before," Mr. Fletcher said.

"There was never any expectation that there would be any changes.

"We have around 250 employees and that number has not changed. We have a significant presence in Bermuda and there are no plans for that to change.

"Eighty percent of our employees are Bermudian and we have a huge commitment to the Island."

Mr. Fletcher, himself a Bermudian, was one of the first 22 employees at the company which began operating on the Island some 24 years ago. Now Ace is a global industry giant that employs more than 15,000 people worldwide.

Ace's distinctive base in Hamilton is home to Ace Bermuda, an insurer focused on excess liability and professional liability, and also reinsurer Ace Tempest Re.

In an interview at the Bermuda booth at the Risk and Insurance Management Society Conference in Orlando yesterday, Mr. Fletcher added that there were no plans to downsize the operations on the Island.

"Our business plan to maintain and grow the business as we have been doing for years," he said. "There are no plans to change or downsize that model. We do see any need to change materially how we do things.

"That does not mean we don't ask our employees to tighten their belts and come up with ideas to save costs, but we are constantly looking at how efficient we are."

Ace is proactive in encouraging Bermudians to enter the insurance industry and Mr. Fletcher's career is proof that locals can reach the higher echelons of company management. He started at local insurer BF&M, where he spent six years, before he moved to Ace 20 years ago. His climb to the role of Bermuda CEO was unplanned, he said.

"I spent the early part of my career concentrating on getting professional qualifications and education, and working at BF&M," he said. "Once I'd got my designations, I thought about where I wanted my career to go. Then I joined Ace."

Ace's profits fell some 54 percent last year, to $1.2 billion, compared to $2.6 billion in 2007. The main cause for the decline was investment losses – a problem shared by most insurers in a year of tumult on the world's financial markets.

"Some of Ace's direct competitors, most notably American International Group and XL Capital, suffered notably.

"Ace has probably seen some business we would not otherwise have had, because of the difficulties of some of our competitors, but we are not necessarily a sole beneficiary," Mr. Fletcher said.

XL and AIG appeared to be holding their own in the market, he added, while newcomers, such as Bermuda-based Ironshore, were also claiming some market share.

Rates were hardening in property lines, in particular, Mr. Fletcher said, a trend he expects to continue in the lead-up to the summer storm season. Casualty and directors' and officers' (D&O) lines were stabilising.

"Towards the later part of the year, I think we'll see all lines hardening," Mr. Fletcher said. "It seems to be more gradual than in previous cycles, more stretched out. Maybe the way this hardening market has started is indicative of the way it will go on."

Mr. Fletcher remains upbeat about the Island's future as a global insurance centre, despite the multiple challenges it faces. The G20's clampdown on tax havens, the grey listing of the Island, the threat of a damaging change in the US tax code and a global tightening of regulation standards mean there is plenty to do.

"On regulation, Bermuda is leading the efforts for improvements and higher standards, and we've been doing so for some time," Mr. Fletcher said. "There is still work to be done for us to get up to Solvency II standards, but we are moving forward."

World leaders seemed to be more concerned about tax transparency than the use of offshore jurisdictions for tax abuse, Mr. Fletcher said, and the Island was making good progress with its signing of the tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs) needed to reach the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) "white list".

"The important thing is that we don't rest on our laurels," Mr. Fletcher said. "Even after we get the TIEAs we need, the pressure will continue to increase and we need to be a leader in this area.

"I think we have to make the politicians understand our tax system.

"We don't have one tax system for international companies and one for local firms, this is just the way Bermuda has always done its taxation.

"There are tax threats from Washington and they're taking more of a high profile with the new administration. The important thing for Bermuda is to be able to explain the impact of what we do on the US economy."