The State of the Bermuda Insurance Industry

The state of our Bermuda insurance industry is strong. This is a testament to the robust resilience of the Bermuda insurance market-place which continues to prosper and evolve in arguably some of the most adverse conditions the insurance industry has ever faced in the wake of the tragedy of 9/11 and the collapse of Enron.

The events of 9/11 precipitated a devastating loss of capacity in the insurance market worldwide – estimates of this outflow of capital vary from between $35 billion to as much as $100 billion. Paradoxically, the attacks of 9/11 were followed by an influx of new capital into Bermuda free of legacy encumbrances and 9/11 losses. More than 100 new insurance companies have been incorporated in Bermuda since that time, of which 12 have capital in excess of $1 billion. Moody’s reported that the largest Bermuda start-ups attracted in excess of $13 billion of start-up capital, or about half of an estimated $27 billion of fresh capital raised worldwide post 9/11. In