Hundreds of the leading lights of the reinsurance industry will be guests at the 'Bermuda Reception' in Monte Carlo today.

Around 500 people, including a strong contingent from the Island's reinsurance industry, are expected to attend the lunchtime event in the picturesque Casino Square.

The event is one of the social highlights of the annual industry get-together known as Les Rendez-Vous de Septembre, where brokers clients and reinsurance executives start discussions on the pricing of reinsurance contracts for the coming year.

Robin Spencer-Arscott, one of the organisers of today's reception and a Rendez-Vous veteran, said there was a mixed mood in Monte Carlo.

"There are some predictions of doom and gloom," said AAA Solutions director Mr. Spencer-Arscott.

"They're saying that if we go right through the season without a big storm, then rates will go through the floor.

"But generally the mood is upbeat, certainly among the brokers. If rates are down, you just have to underwrite slightly fewer lines."

There has been much talk of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and consequent pollution of the Gulf of Mexico. Several companies have responded

Munich Re has used the event to propose a new facility to provide up to $20 billion worth of extra coverage for Gulf oil producers. The German giant said it was ready to contribute $2 billion of that capacity and expected others in the market to join in after regulators had approved the plan.

Brokers Aon and Marsh have also combined forces to create a facility providing over $1bn of excess liability cover to oil companies for control of well and pollution clean-up costs, according to reports.

Bermuda-based Torus Insurance Holdings Ltd. is one of the leading capacity providers on the programme. Mr. Spencer-Arscott said he had chatted about the plan with an upbeat Torus CEO Clive Tobin.

Other sources are reporting that this facility will bring together more than 30 reinsurers from Bermuda, the US and Europe.

Mr. Spencer-Arscott said he believed numbers were down for the Monte Carlo event.

"I'm basing that on how difficult it is to get a table at certain venues and at the places I've been, it hasn't been that difficult," he said.