Bermuda has been dubbed "a new home for the American dream'' in a special edition of top reinsurance magazine The Review.

The February issue of the publication features Tempest Re's president and chief executive officer John Engestrom on the front and nine pages inside on business on the Island.

One article in the glossy magazine is headlined: "Bermuda: an Island of innovation'', and is on the boom in the insurance and reinsurance markets.

"Bermuda's evolution from a leading captive domicile to a key international re/insurance and diversified financial services centre continues at a breath-taking pace.

"Once a trickle, the volume of US reinsurance holding companies rushing to Bermuda has swelled, motivated by the island's tax-advantaged status.'' The article goes on to state that there is also a boom in the insurance and reinsurance market locally.

"Conversely, Bermudian insurers and reinsurers have been making cross-border moves of their own by actively purchasing or consolidating with foreign and domestic firms in a bid to grow revenues and reduce correlated risks by expanding their business lines.'' `Bda the new land of opportunity' The new acquisitions come with their own risk, according to the article's authors Alan Murray and Ted Collins of Moody's Investor Services.

"It will take some time before a consensus develops on the effectiveness of the range of approaches currently being pursued by the Bermudian reinsurers.

Similarly whether US re/insurers redomesticating to Bermuda will achieve their business objectives remains to be seen. The long-term effects of good and bad business decisions will surely have an impact on company ratings.'' But there was praise: "Nonetheless, the island's considerable human and financial resources, together with its excellent location and business-friendly regulatory operating environment, should ensure that Bermuda's reinsurance sector will remain an influential and dynamic presence in the global marketplace.'' In the cover story, Tempest Re's Mr. Engestrom is called a "true believer'' and talks of his vision for Tempest Re, which was acquired by ACE in 1997, to become a multi-line reinsurer.

The article states: "Tempest has recruited for the US business, and will shortly announce who it has chosen to head-up the London office. The US operation will write the American business, north and south, whereas worldwide business will be written from London.

"If other reinsurers were self believers they too could map out their direction for tomorrow. One day the belief would pay-off and their ideas would be realised. Every reinsurer has a dream. Each knows the direction it would like to take to achieve a profitable future. But they must have faith.

Engestrom has.'' In the article Mr. Engestrom speaks of the new technology sweeping through the industry.

The article states: "Insurers and reinsurers were reluctant to adapt modern ways, but had a wake-up call because of the threat of the millennium bug. They saw the liability of not upgrading systems , but embracing technology has been a slow procedure.

"Engestrom says: "For our next step, our approach will be different again -- technologically driven. We see this as a competitive advantage for Tempest. In the future we would like to see ourselves standing tall with the support of out analysis and modelling techniques.'' "The company is clearly planning for the future while taking into account the important elements of direction, accountability and transparency.'' The second article featuring Bermuda is written by David Fox, formerly a business writer at The Royal Gazette and currently director of information services at the Bermuda Insurance Market.

`Year of the cat' outlines the strong position held by Bermuda in the catastrophe market and the hopes that the soft market will finally turn hard with prices going up.

"The European storms occurred too late to really have an effect on January renewals -- perhaps in some retrocessional programmes or renewals after January 1,'' said Herbert Haag, president and chief executive officer of Partner Re.

In the article he states that the first test will be the Japanese market renewals on April 1.

"While we are not happy with the rates we saw in January, we have to be satisfied that we've achieved some improvement on the catastrophe side. And we have seen a halt in the deterioration of pricing over the whole book of business.'' Cover story: Bermuda's booming insurance industry is the focus of a special issue of The Review magazine BUSINESS BUC