The number of new re/insurers setting up in Bermuda has increased by 50 percent over the past year with 13 new companies incorporating in December alone.The recent upsurge in registrations has affirmed the Island’s status as a world-class centre for insurance according to the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), while the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers (ABIR) said the numbers reflect the Bermuda’s strength in attracting new capital to the market.Among the most notable additions last month were Class 4 re/insurers PaC Re Ltd and Third Point Reinsurance Company Ltd.Special Purpose Insurers (SPI) Upsilon Reinsurance Ltd, Mercury Insurance Company Ltd, Aeolus Re J12 SPI Ltd and Triton Re Ltd also joined the growing list for December, as did Long-Term Class C re/insurer MS Financial Reinsurance Ltd, Class 2 insurer DCS Risk Management Ltd, Class 3A re/insurers Star Re Ltd, Awbury Insurance Ltd, Lion Reinsurance Company Ltd and Rocksound Insurance Ltd, and Class 3B re/insurer AQR Re Ltd, bringing the count to 53 for the year.This compares to 36 registrations in 2010.Leila Madeiros, senior vice-president, deputy director and corporate secretary of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers (ABIR), said that the latest incorporations indicated Bermuda’s continued ability to attract capital in the re/insurance market.“Whilst we are not in a position to know the specific reasons for the high number of incorporations during December, the large number of catastrophe losses incurred in 2011 may be the catalyst for the surge,” she said. “Of the $105 billion in global cat losses in 2011, reinsurers are estimated to have picked up 45 percent of that total.”A spokesman for the BMA said: “The Bermuda Monetary Authority is very pleased to note a 50 percent year-on-year increase in insurance registrations (from 36 registrations in 2010 to 54 registrations in 2011.)“We are also pleased to note that the 13 registrations received in December 2011 spanned across the majority of classes in the Bermuda insurance market ranging from captives and Special Purpose Insurers, to insurers in the commercial market.”“This data indicates the market’s continued confidence in Bermuda as a world-class insurance jurisdiction.”In a separate statement released by the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) yesterday, the Exchange reported that it had surpassed $3 billion in listed catastrophe bonds and insurance linked securities (ILS) for the first time at the end of 2011 with 25 ILS worth a total of $3.373 billion.The BSX said that it had been working hard to promote itself as the top destination for ILS and cat bonds while legislative changes made by the BMA had made the Island a more attractive domicile for such securities.“We are absolutely delighted with how 2011 has been for the BSX,” said Greg Wojciechowski, president and CEO of the BSX. “We set out in 2010 to firstly raise the profile of Bermuda and the exchange, and secondly to attract more ILS to the Island and to list on the exchange. We feel we have achieved a great deal in the last two years.”Of the 25 listed ILS on the BSX four were securitisation programs, 13 were notes issued under these programmes, six were tranches of ILS notes issued as stand-alone securities and two are specialist exchange trade fund classes.“All of this activity has happened in the space of about two years,” said Mr Wojciechowski. “The momentum is driven largely by the BMA’s revised regulations, which in late 2009 established a new designation for ‘special-purpose insurers’ (SPI) as part of its supervisory scheme. This has been a very positive step for SPI’s setting up in Bermuda wanting to issue ILS such as catastrophe bonds, and we have been able to offer them the option of listing these ILS on the exchange.”According to the BMA, 23 special-purpose insurers were formed in Bermuda during 2011, with the majority of these formations created specifically to issue catastrophe bonds or create sidecars. In 2010, 10 were formed during the same period.Mr Wojciechowski continued: “Bermuda is the world’s third largest reinsurance market and is already home to 1,400 insurance companies with total assets of $442 billion, and is a natural place for setting up ILS. Many of our reinsurance companies have issued cat bonds or set up special purpose vehicles such as side cars so we have a historical interest and knowledge.“At the exchange, we are looking to support it from a capital markets perspective any way we can. Institutional investors such as pension and endowment funds are interested particularly in ILS because of the low correlation between ILS and capital markets. ILS are a natural hedge to capital markets, and listing on the exchange gives them that bit more security.“In Bermuda, we also have a critical mass of insurers and reinsurers, the infrastructure to deal with them, and the rigorous regulation from the Bermuda Monetary Authority and the Bermuda Stock Exchange.”