Hiscox is planning to expand its Bermuda operations and eventually hire more staff.In an interview with The Royal Gazette, Hiscox's group chief executive officer Bronek Masojada said the company intended to increase its office space by about half.The re/insurer, which is based in fourth-floor offices in Wessex House on Reid Street, employs 38 people. Hiscox moved its domicile to Bermuda from the UK five years ago and at the same time set up a reinsurance underwriting operation on the Island.“We're in negotiations to increase the amount of office space we have by 50 percent,” Mr Masojada said yesterday. “The business is growing.”This would “inevitably” mean an increase in headcount in the future, he added.Mr Masojada said he was happy with the way things had worked out since the company's redomestication to the Island in 2006.“Bermuda's been very good for us,” Mr Masojada said. “We moved here for strategic, regulatory and tax reasons and all have worked out fine for us. If we'd only wanted the tax advantages, we'd have gone to Guernsey, as that's much closer to London.”Hiscox was also happy with the Government's decision to roll back the rate of payroll tax from 16 percent to 14 percent, reversing last year's increase.“That encourages us to continue to be here,” Mr Masojada said. “By making that tax reduction, the Premier is sending a signal that Bermuda remains open and attractive to international companies.“There are some uncertainties in Bermuda, but then there are uncertainties in every jurisdiction. In terms of the property catastrophe reinsurance business, Bermuda is a global centre.”On the potential threat of tax changes in the US, Mr Masojada said he tended not to worry too much about what politicians might or might not do.On regulation, he said the Bermuda Monetary Authority was doing the right thing by enhancing its standards to try to gain equivalence with the new Solvency II rules for insurers in the European Union, which are due to take effect in 2013.“Solvency II is a huge issue and nobody's quite sure where it's going to end up,” Mr Masojada said. “The BMA is on the right track and is doing a great job keeping up with that.”He did not feel that the Island's keenness to comply with Solvency II would erode its regulatory competitive advantage. Consistency in regulation across different countries was helpful to a global company, he said, and he would like to see Bermuda's standard of regulation in synch with that of the EU.“Bermuda doesn't need to position itself as a no-regulation centre,” he said. “Customers take comfort from rigorous regulation. Bermuda's key advantage is speed. The ability to move fast is more important than the regulatory environment.”For investors looking to set up new companies during a spike in demand for insurance following a major event, a 12- to 18-month wait was no good. In Bermuda, the new company could be up and running within weeks.Hiscox is different from many Bermuda companies, as almost half of its book of business is “small-ticket” retail insurance including insuring works of art for high net worth clients, and kidnap and ransom.The Bermuda office sees the “large-ticket” reinsurance business, which is much less labour intensive, but more capital intensive. The lack of correlation between the two distinct halves of the book provides Hiscox with strength and stability, Mr Masojada said.The large-ticket side can be increased or shrunk in response to market conditions, while the small-ticket side gives the company a solid base, he said. Speaking hours after yesterday's devastating earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, Mr Masojada said Hiscox had some exposure to the event through its participation in the New Zealand earthquake reinsurance pool.“That is what the Bermuda market is here for,” the CEO said. “A few months ago, money from Bermuda helped New Zealanders to recover from an earthquake and now Bermuda is going to help again. That is the value of our product.”Hiscox has made a conscious effort to be a good corporate citizen in Bermuda. Apart from sponsoring some youth cricket and the Bermuda World Cup cricket team, the company also sponsors a global graduate programme with two places for graduates from Bermuda.Useful website: www.hiscox.com