Amlin Bermuda made a strong contribution to its Lloyd?s of London parent in the first half of this year, the company said on Monday.

?This has been a busy and productive first half for Amlin. The six month result again demonstrates the strength of our business,? Amlin Plc chief executive officer Charles Phillips said.

Net income for the group declined to ?94.9 million ($181 million) from ?100 million in the year-earlier period, the London-based company said, blaming the decline on the weakness of the US dollar.

But Amlin Bermuda, which was formed in December to benefit from rising premium rates, added ?36.8 million to pretax profit.

Mr. Philips said: ?With Amlin Bermuda building its potential and our reinsurance exposures repositioned to address changes in the market we are well placed going forward.?

The company?s recently established Bermuda based subsidiary has written $55 million (net of brokerage) of new business to date, excluding intra-group business ceded to it by Syndicate 2001, Amlin said.

?The strategy of using London distribution for sourcing Amlin Bermuda?s business has proven to be beneficial and we have been encouraged by the strong support of the London brokers,? Mr. Phillips said.

?2006 has started well and Amlin Bermuda has had a very good reception from our UK based brokers.

?We believe there is scope for continued rate strengthening as the year progresses, as markets in some classes, such as direct property insurance, have yet to respond to the increased cost of reinsurance cover, and the main renewal season for key wind affected zones of the world is later in the year. The outlook is positive.?

Yesterday State Street Corporation, a leading provider of financial services to institutional investors, announced it has been appointed by Amlin Plc and Amlin Bermuda to provide an integrated suite of investment services for $2.2 billion in assets.

Under the terms of the agreement, State Street will provide Amlin with custody, investment accounting, performance measurement, compliance monitoring and futures clearing services. State Street will utilise its proprietary Princeton Financial Systems? PAM for investment accounting, and WM Performance Services will provide performance measurement.

?State Street was very flexible and accommodated our requirements well in their proposal, particularly with regard to deploying the PAM investment accounting platform,? Jayne Thorburn, chief investment officer at Amlin, said.

?We are very pleased to be working with State Street, an industry leader in insurance accounting, and are confident that we can form a long-term partnership together.?