Bermuda yesterday brought its total of signed tax information exchange agreements up to 17 by inking a deal with Mexico.

Finance Minister Paula Cox and her Mexican counterpart Agustin Carstens signed the agreement, which will provide for a full exchange of information on criminal and civil tax matters between the two jurisdictions, in Mexico City yesterday.

Minister Cox said signing the TIEA with Mexico would send a signal to encourage Mexican nationals and corporations to begin to invest in Bermuda investment funds and to establish captive insurance companies on the Island.

She added that the TIEA would increase Bermuda's attractiveness as a domicile to all members of ALARYS, an association of Latin American risk managers and insurers, which plans to hold a major conference in Bermuda next year.

Minister Cox was joined by the Finance Ministry's treaty adviser Laura Semos and Eduardo Fox, a member of the Bermuda team that negotiated the TIEA in Mexico City in 2006 and the official adviser to the Government on Latin American affairs.

A spin-off benefit for Bermuda is that it will benefit from any current or future Mexican laws that enhance trade with its TIEA partners.

Bradley Kading, president of the Association of Business Insurers and Reinsurers (ABIR), said: "Mexico is exposed to horrific earthquake and hurricane loss potential, very similar to the United States. Bermuda's reinsurers are the leading providers of natural disaster catastrophe reinsurance and as a result we are logical providers of coverage to Mexico domiciled insurers as well as global insurers with Mexico exposures.

"We provide 40 percent of the hurricane and earthquake reinsurance to North America. The signing of the TIEA is recognition of the business connections between Mexican-based risk managers and Bermudian-based risk takers."

David Ezekiel, chairman of the Association of Bermuda International Companies (ABIC) said: "Coming just after the conclusion of negotiations with Spain and the signing of the TIEA with France, the signing of the TIEA with Mexico is further good news for the Bermuda international business sector as all three of these countries have a substantial involvement in our market. The signing of the TIEA will enhance those current relationships and should make Bermuda even more attractive as a domicile for prospective clients from Mexico."

Bermuda now has TIEAs in place with France, Germany, the UK, and the US, as well as Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the Nordic Group (including Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Faroe Islands and Greenland), and Netherlands Antilles.