The Bermuda Monetary Authority said declining insurance rates have slowed formation of new insurance and reinsurance firms, with 71 new insurers set up on the island last year, down from 82 in 2006.

Even with a fewer number of start-ups, the financial services regulator said Bermuda's insurers saw strong performance and an upward trend in underwriting results last year–reporting total assets of $440.4 billion and gross premiums of $115.8 billion.

The asset figure grew 33 percent over 2006 combined assets of $329.9 billion, while premiums jumped nearly 15 percent from $100.7 written in 2006.

In 2007, BMA said, captives accounted for $72 billion of the total assets and almost $22 billion in gross premiums written.

Commenting on the fall in registrations, BMA said this reflected the generally softer market conditions globally, which saw a slowing of captive incorporations.

In addition, a lack of major catastrophic events during the year meant there was sufficient global capital in the property-casualty commercial insurance sector, BMA said.

BMA reported that the majority of the new Bermuda market entrants for 2007 were Class 3 insurers, which include commercial insurance and reinsurance companies set up with less than $100 million in capital and captives which write some unrelated third-party business.

As of Dec. 31, BMA tallied 1,305 insurers in total, consisting of 490 Class 3 insurers, 81 Class 4 insurers (the largest insurer and reinsurers set up with more than $100 million in capital), and nearly 700 captives (343 Class 1, single parent and 353 Class 2 or multi-owner captives).