Two new reinsurance companies have set up in Bermuda this year, The Royal Gazette has learned.

Olympus Reinsurance Ltd. and Queens Island Reinsurance Ltd. have been incorporated, but few details are available as yet about the formations.

Olympus Reinsurance is believed to have $500 million in capital, but little else is known about the company or Queens Island Re or who is behind the ventures.

This takes the total number of new companies to spring up since September 11 to nine, with total known capital of $7.4 billion and total new capital from existing companies standing at $4.087 billion, taking the total known amount of capital to $11.487 billion.

The Registrar of Companies confirmed that the companies had been registered, with Olympus registered on December 3 and Queens on December 12 of 2001.

The Royal Gazette was alerted to the incorporations when the Ministry of Finance issued a statement saying there were eight new major insurance companies formed since September 11.

Gazette records showed just seven companies but Financial Secretary Donald Scott would not name the eighth company, referring the newspaper to the Supervisor of Insurance, Jeremy Cox.

After investigations by The Royal Gazette, it was established that the Ministry of Finance had not included Arch Re in the eight because it had been incorporated earlier in the year and its mission only changed after the terrorist attack, leaving two new companies on their list.

Subsequent investigations produced the two names, but at press time, little else was known about the companies. Mr. Jeremy Cox gave the Gazette the incorporation dates, but referred the Gazette to the Registrar of Companies, who then confirmed the incorporations, but said their search service was closed at the time of the call - 4.40 p.m.

The Ministry of Finance's original statement said: "Since September 11, eight major insurance companies have been formed in Bermuda injecting approximately $9 billion of new capital into the market."

Further questions to the Ministry of Finance revealed that this figure of $9 billion included new capital raised existing companies, but figures gathered by The Royal Gazette do not add up to the same amount, with a difference so far of $2.487 billion.

The Ministry of Finance also said that six of the eight companies were classified as Class 4 insurers.

In December economic advisor Dr. Andrew Brimmer said there would be $9.5 billion worth of new capital .

He declined to say what new companies were incorporating, but said: "During the last few months seven major insurance companies have been incorporated with more than $7 billion of new capital. Additional incorporations of major excess liability companies are pending which would bring the new capital capacity to $9.5 billion."

The new wave of insurance and reinsurance companies to flood into Bermuda have been spurred on by the global shortage of capacity produced by the terrorist attacks on September 11. It is the third wave of insurers to hit the Island.

In the mid-1980s ACE Ltd and XL Capital Ltd were set up by Marsh and other US investors to provide big-ticket liability insurance as large court awards dried up coverage in the US.

In the early 1990s, six major reinsurers were set up to soak up demand for large-scale property catastrophe reinsurance after Hurricane Andrew. Those reinsurers included RenaissanceRe and PartnerRe.

Now the latest disaster with the terrorist attacks has led to another shortage of capacity and this wave of new capital has been flooding in with companies vying to set up in time to take advantage of the January renewal season.