insurance companies Oil Insurance Ltd. and Oil Casualty Insurance Ltd., has signed a new five year pledge for $100,000 to the Bermuda Foundation for Insurance Studies.

OMSL was one of the original contributors to BFIS and has already donated $62,500.

BFIS uses the money to help progress the education and careers of Bermudians in the insurance industry. It provides scholarships to accredited colleges and organises mentoring programmes.

Jon King, recently retired president and chief executive officer of OMSL, said, "Having been on the receiving end of the benefits of BFIS, we are delighted to renew and increase our support to this organisation.

"We have employed two of the first BFIS scholarship graduates and another scholarship student, graduating this May, has been working for us for the past two years during his vacations. A fourth student, in her second year at Bermuda College, has been interning with us two afternoons a week during the semester as well as in the vacations.'' Brian Hall, chairman of BFIS, said, "OMSL shows us that hands- on support for BFIS is as necessary to the success of our programmes as donations. We now have four mentors from within the OMSL organisation: Elspeth Brewin of OIL; Andrea Viera of OCIL; Graham Kirk of OCIL; Sharon Woods, senior claims analyst.'' MAX RE ANNOUNCES YEARLY RESULTS BUC Max Re announces yearly results Max Re Capital has announced it made a gross income of $15.5 million last year.

Net income, excluding net unrealised appreciation of investments with fixed maturities, was $8.7 million. The company commenced underwriting operations in the first quarter of 2000 so comparisons are not available with previous years.

Gross premiums for the year totalled $409.7 million of which 69 percent were life and annuity premiums and 31 percent were property and casualty. Net premiums were $401.8 million.

Net earned premiums for the year were $401.4 million, 71 percent of which were life and annuity and 29 percent were property and casualty.

Stockholders' equity and minority interest at the year's end was $514.6 million and basic earnings per share were $0.36.

Robert Cooney, chairman, president and chief executive officer, said, " We are both pleased and encouraged by the results of our first full year of operations. The company has performed very much in line with our expectations, despite the turbulence experienced in the equity markets.

"Customer interest in the company's alternative risk financing solutions has been strong and the January 2001 renewal season confirms this trend.''