No definitive arrangements have yet been made for the restructuring of Bermuda operations of merged insurance brokers, Johnson & Higgins and Marsh & McLennan.

Now consolidated under the umbrella J&H Marsh McLennan Inc., the largest broker in the world and Bermuda's largest captive manager, company executives conceded the Bermuda team remains among the few that have not yet been assigned a corporate leader.

The global company had 31 task forces reporting to New York about the various elements of the organisation's operations in 100 countries.

But here in Bermuda, industry insiders report weeks of uncertainty and tension in hundreds of employees who have worked for the firms. They are waiting to hear who will head up the local operations and anticipating that some may lose their jobs.

Tom Elliott in the corporate communications office in New York said the company remains in the process of integrating the two companies and there can be no speculation as to when the whole reorganisation will be accomplished.

He said: "The integration is moving forward. We have done all of the geographical operations around the world and I would expect that it would not be a long time before we announce changes to the Bermuda operations.

"Not everything has been completed in our other business centres. But the head of Europe is in place, the head of Asia is in place, the head of the US, Canada and Latin America, and so forth.

"But not the details, or all of the operations can be in place by any means.

We are already a couple of months past the conclusion of the merger. They are two large organisations and we are making good progress in working to integrate them. We do not expect it will be a long time before we announce some things regarding Bermuda.'' Bermudian Brian Hall, a director of J&H, has been chairman of the Bermuda operations, Johnson & Higgins (Bermuda) Ltd. for some years. It was by far the Island's largest captive manager, responsible for combined premium volume of $1.653 billion in 1996 through 193 captives, using 141 staff.

Marsh & McLennan Management Services (Bermuda) Ltd., under Andrew Carr, last year was responsible for half a billion dollars worth of premium through 97 captives, using 45 staff.

And while J&H were local captive management leaders, Marsh & McLennan Global Broking (Bermuda) Ltd. (followed by J&H Global Broking) was the leader here in broking operations.