Removing The Contraints To Growth

Executive Summary

The Bermuda (re)insurance industry appears to be at a crossroads. For the first time, the dominance of the island in the market seems to have been shaken by a unique combination of adverse pricing caused by an influx of capital and low catastrophe losses and economic conditions such as low interest rates.

The Bermuda market has grown from strength to strength over the past 70 years. From the day AIG set up on the Island in 1947, various catastrophes or shortages of capital in the market have led to a boom over the past 20 odd years, with wave after wave of insurers setting up.

Now, however, the "bigger is better" model seems to be dominating and mergers and acquisitions have been high on the agenda for the island's executives.