Letter from Bermuda: A sign of the times? Bermuda’s main insurance conference moves to Dubai

The month of March, 2008 may be viewed by history as the beginning of the demise of the Bermuda insurance market. A 60-year growth pattern, the envy of every other country in the world, is now threatened by short-sightedness and greed on the part of the Bermuda Government. Insurance executives are talking openly about “voting with their feet” as the only way of dealing with the Government’s rapaciousness. If they leave, Bermuda will be up against it.Two major events marked the month. First, the World Insurance Forum, a Bermuda event since its inauguration in 1994, an event organised by Bermuda people, voted with its feet and was held in Dubai, in a tent. The Forum is a world-beating franchise that allows very senior insurance people to come together every two years to thrash out major issues. It is the insurance equivalent of the World Economic Forum, held in Davos. Attracting people to Bermuda in the spring is not a difficult task, and the Forum apparently attracted up to 750 attendees.