XL Capital chief executive officer Michael McGavick has been "key" in promoting Bermuda's cause in Washington, according to Finance Minister Paula Cox.

Mr. McGavick has been active for some time in helping the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers (ABIR), of which XL is a member, to help persuade lawmakers not to support US taxation changes that would be punitive to the Island's insurance sector.

The revelation comes after Mr. McGavick, who is well connected in US political circles, told an international business audience last week that the tax threat to Bermuda from the US was now "extremely real".

Opposition Senator Michael Fahy raised Mr. McGavick's concern in the Senate this week, to which Home Affairs Minister David Burch asked: "His credentials are what?"

Asked in an interview yesterday about Bermuda's lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill, Ms Cox said she was concerned about the threat of punitive taxation changes — just as she was before President-elect Barack Obama had won the White House.

"ABIR is raising its game and XL has been key," Minister Cox said. "Mr. McGavick is not just a practitioner in the insurance field.

"He also has the wherewithal and the connections to help our efforts considerably."

Mr. McGavick, the former CEO of US insurance company Safeco, ran unsuccessfully for the US Senate as a Republican candidate in 2006 and also served as chief of staff for Senator Slade Gorton.