Bermuda's first facility to buy insurance over the Internet has just gone online.

BF&M has become the first local insurance company to offer a way to buy instant travel, car, bike and home insurance at the click of a button.

It has pipped half a dozen other competitors at the post and gone online after the company set up the facility on its Web page www.bfm.bm.

"We are not going to be an Amazon dot.com overnight, but that is where we want to be,'' said Hugh O'Neill, vice President of information systems who along with vice president of customer relations and sales Glen Gibbons headed up a team to design a system that would work on the Web.

After entering the Web page, the user can then get a quote for any make of car or bike available on the Island, any kind of travel insurance or household insurance. The user can then save the quote or click to buy and pay with a credit or debit card on a secure site. This will mean that the policy can take immediate effect and can be done at any time of night or day.

"This is a 2 4/7 service,'' said Glenn Titterton, president and chief executive officer of BF&M, as he unveiled the service yesterday at the company's offices on Pitts Bay Road. If you are in London and you suddenly realise you haven't got travel insurance, all you have to do is go online and you can take it out then and there. It takes about two minutes and then you are covered.'' When Mr. Titterton joined the insurance world 38 years ago, things were very different. Correspondence was either done by mail or people came into the office. There was no fax, no e-mail, no telex. Telegrams were used to send messages abroad.

Painstaking records of customer records were kept in separate files, details written down on file cards. Things have changed a great deal since then.

Digital signatures were made legal in Bermuda last year and BF&M management believe electronic documents will become legal soon.

At the moment the company is still loaded with paper as documents have to be kept for seven years after a policy expires.

"Things have changed very rapidly, which is part of the fun of business. We like the new technology. It enables us to give such better service to our customers,'' said Mr. Titterton.

The management hope that the online insurance unveiled yesterday will be the first stage in an ongoing updating of the way things are done.

The next stage will be amendments and renewals of policies online and eventually the company hopes that every document will be able to be electronically signed and sealed on line.

By clicking on the "I agree'' button the contract is legally binding in the same way that signing a document would be.

The site is protected by a 128 bit encryption -- which meets with current safety standards. BF&M are using Peter Durhager's new company Promisant as their gateway payment system -- which processes payment by credit cards used on the site.

E-surance: BF&M have gone live and online offering customers instant insurance. President and CEO Glenn Titterton (left) unveils the service with vice president customer relations & Sales Glen Gibbons (centre) and vice president of information services Hugh O'Neill (right).