insurance-tailored financial services all this week at America's largest industry conference.

The Bank has splashed out tens of thousands of dollars in an effort to grab a larger share of Bermuda's lucrative international insurance sector, which last year was worth $15.4 billion in written premiums and $11.1 billion in net premiums.

This year's prestigious Risk & Insurance Management Society's annual conference in Orlando is the first RIMS at which the Bank has had a booth.

Ten of the Bank's staff from its offices in London, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda will spend the whole week trying to drum up business and raising the Bank's profile among insurance companies. Mr. Arthur (Pell) Price, Butterfield's manager of the international division, said: "About 60 to 65 percent of the business which banks in Bermuda do stems from international business on the Island.

"The Bank of Butterfield recognises how important this sector is to Bermuda as a whole and to the banks and, since RIMS is the industry's premier event, we felt we ought to have a presence here.'' The main theme of the Bank's efforts at RIMS is to promote its investment services, particularly its segregated management services.

"These services would be for the mature captive which has a good loss history and has managed to build up excess reserves as a consequence,'' he said.

"Once they've built up reserves they look to diversify their investments, which is where we can offer expert help.

"A mature captive knows when their premiums are coming in and they also have a good idea of when their losses will be coming through.

"The Bank of Butterfield can do a matched portfolio for them, matching the maturities of their investments with the periods when their losses are likely to be incurred.'' Mr. Price emphasised that Butterfield is the only Bermudian bank which had a fully licensed branch in London, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Seymour Pierce Butterfield.

Together with the Bank's other trans-Atlantic office in Guernsey, Butterfield is in excellent position to capitalise on the unexpected increase in captive business which Bermuda has been picking up recently from Europe.

"We've focused a lot over the last couple of years on the insurance industry,'' said Mr. Price, who is responsible for all new business development at the Bank of Butterfield.

"We try to attend crucial insurance conferences to increase our exposure in the industry and monitor all the issues it faces, such as fronting legislation. We pay the industry more than lip service.'' One of the innovations introduced at the Bank to cater for insurance clients was the introduction of a single fee for letter of credit and investment services, as opposed to a cluster of separate fees which can annoy clients.

Mr. Price is a member of the Bermuda Insurance Advisory Committee's marketing committee and also sits on four IAC sub-committees.

He also revealed that the Bank of Butterfield was recently upgraded from an A to an A-plus by the highly-regarded European-based IBCA rating agency for banks.

Mr. Price is part of a large number of players in Bermuda's international insurance sector who attend RIMS, which attracts some 10,000 people from all over the world.