Bermuda's insurers and reinsurers seem to have largely escaped and may even have benefited from the recent spate of natural disasters occurring around the world, according to an analyst with rating agency Standard & Poors.

In the last few months earthquakes have occurred in Turkey, Greece and now Taiwan. Meanwhile the Caribbean and North Carolina have been hit by windstorm damage and flooding in the wake of Floyd.

Donald Watson, who heads Standard & Poor's global reinsurance rating division, said reinsurers and insurers were largely unaffected by flooding in North Carolina as damage was covered through a Federal Government programme.

In Turkey, the damage costs were mainly borne by German and Swiss reinsurers he said. Their insured damages, while significant, were relatively small as Turkey was not a developed insurance market and many buildings were not built to code. Currently however, he is calculating the estimated effects on the market from the recent Taiwan earthquake. The earthquake claimed more than 1,700 lives and left a trail of destruction which will saddle insurers with an estimated $3.16 billion bill, according to Reuters news service.

Insurers say it is too early to estimate a loss reserve for claims, but the industry typically faces a bill equivalent to about 30 percent of total economic losses.

Mr. Watson said Bermuda insurers and reinsurers might have exposure but again the damage might be limited by the "insular'' undeveloped market.

He said the recent events might be good for the Bermuda market. While the industry was not hit hard, he figures demand for insurance and reinsurance will increase in the regions as rebuilding takes place.

He however doesn't expect rates to increase. The rates might at least firm up as a result, he said.

Earthquake insurance was held by relatively few individuals and small businesses in Taiwan because of its high price, but fire insurance policies would cover a number of claims, according to Reuters.

Merrill Lynch said Bermuda-based catastrophe reinsurers RenaissanceRe and IPC Re could also face some exposure. The bulk of claims were expected not from physical damage, but from policies covering power outages, business interruption and loss of profits, particularly for the semiconductor industry.

"Business interruption will probably be the biggest claim,'' said Clive Bate, chairman of Aon Holdings Holdings (Asia) in Hong Kong. Aon had set up a reinsurance task force in London and deployed teams in Taiwan to deal with claims, he said. Y.C. Wei, managing director for Aon in Taipei, said industry exposure to power outage claims would be "similar, but greater'' than the blackout that hit Taiwan in July.

Research house Morgan Stanley Dean Witter said property-casualty premiums reached $4.8 billion in 1997. Those policies would be backed by reinsurers, and market sources said companies likely to have significant exposure were Munich Reinsurance, Swiss Reinsurance and Allianz.

Swiss Re said on Tuesday it expected a $39 million bill from the quake and estimated that total claims for the industry would not exceed the $2 billion total expected for last month's earthquake in Turkey.

Officials at the Asia headquarters of Munich Re, the world's biggest reinsurer and a dominant regional player, were unavailable for comment in the Reuters story.

Sabia Schwarzer at Allianz's Asia headquarters in Singapore said yesterday she expected to receive reinsurance claims by the end of the month. Allianz mainly reinsures Taiwan's semiconductor plants.

Loss estimates from the July blackout in Hsinchu Science Park, heart of Taiwan's key electronics industry, were more than T$5 billion. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (NYSE:TSM - news) said on Tuesday it saw a 10 percent loss in September wafer production in the aftermath of the earthquake.

The Taiwan quake will add to the agony of reinsurers, still reeling from the Turkish earthquake in August and a number of other natural calamities this year.

But the short-term pain should help reinsurers in their bid to raise rates in the coming renewal season when about two-thirds of the industry's contracts are negotiated. Reinsurance rates have sagged in recent years to levels which have become unprofitable, particularly when catastrophes hit.