Bermuda by the end of last year, Government said yesterday.

And The Royal Gazette understands that the Registrar of Companies office -- the business regulatory arm of Government -- will be beefed up with at least two senior appointments by mid-year.

Registrar of Companies Mr. Malcolm Butterfield said yesterday that the number of international insurance and reinsurance companies on the Bermuda register had risen to 1,357, a net increase of 42 from the 1,315 total a year ago.

In the 12 months to the end of December, a near-record 95 new companies were registered and 53 left the register.

The 95 registrations is second only to 1986 when there were a record 125 incorporations. This year's 95 new companies represents a 56 percent increase over 1993 when there were 61 new companies.

Mr. Butterfield, flanked by Inspector of Companies, Mr. Kymn Astwood said the figures provided "a powerful reinforcement of Bermuda's position as the leading insurance domicile of its kind...'' He partly attributed the growth to greater awareness of the secure Bermuda market with $29 billion in capital and surplus.

"Almost half of last year's formations were captive insurance entities, while over a fifth of the incorporations originated from countries located outside of Bermuda's traditional source markets in the US, UK and continental Europe,'' he added.

The Registrar agreed that with the new captives, Bermuda maintained, if not stretched, its advantage as the leading captive domicile.

Mr. Butterfield continued: "Our statistics tell us that 22 percent of our new insurance and reinsurance companies came from countries such as Africa, the Middle East, Mexico, the West Indies and Latin America in 1994, compared to eight percent from these countries in 1993.'' Overall, the US continued to predominate in terms of the domicile of the beneficial owners' of the companies that incorporated. In 1993, 79 percent of the new beneficial owners came from the US, last year 64 percent were US.

Mr. Butterfield said: "Additionally, we have found that 45 of last year's incorporations, or 48 percent of the total, were captive insurance entities, reinsuring or insuring directly the risks of their parent companies and/or affiliates. In 1993, companies in this category accounted for little more than a third of new formations.'' He said that the Bermuda market's higher profile and its greater understanding of its commercial capabilities in general and the benefits of captive insurance programmes in particular, were among the main factors behind the statistics.

The Royal Gazette also understands that Government's Budget next month will include a provision to pay for at least two more staff for the Registrar of Companies, the department of the Finance Ministry that not only looks after the register of all Bermuda companies, but also is involved in regulating the insurance and reinsurance industries, together with other responsibilities.

The current 20-man team, in taking on two people, possibly at the level of inspector, would also perhaps seek further administrative or clerical workers.

Government officials had little to say about the possible changes yesterday.

The regulatory ability for insurers and reinsurers has come under scrutiny recently by observers in other jurisdictions partly because of the Government's willingness to use a regulatory framework that has its officials working more with the companies, than in isolation.