Murray House, Mount Havelock, DOUGLAS, Isle of Man. IM1 2QF.M Telephone: (01624) 685839 Fax: (01624) 685851 E-mail: daff@gov.im

Date: 20th July 2001

PRESS RELEASE

IPA appoints Pensions Marketing Executive

The Isle of Man Insurance and Pensions Authority is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Lightfoot to assist it in developing and implementing an integrated strategy for the development of the Isle of Man as a centre for International Retirement Benefit Schemes. In developing the strategy Michael will be liasing with the Treasury's International Services Division and will be working alongside Chris Shimmin, the Authority's Supervisor - Pensions.

Mike Lightfoot

The Authority recognises that the new retirement benefits legislation represent an important new venture for the Isle of Man and acknowledges the need to raise the Island's profile as a prime location from which retirement benefit schemes may be managed or administered.

In joining the Authority, Michael brings to the IPA substantial experience of international life assurance and pensions business. Previously employed in a marketing and business development context in the island's insurance and banking sectors, Michael joins the Authority from an Isle of Man based financial adviser specialising in the provision of offshore financial products - including pensions - to overseas clients and companies.

Elaborating on the role, Michael clarified that:

"Having spent a considerable amount of time attracting personal and group pension business to the island in my previous roles I fully understand the strengths that are inherent in the new legislation and hope to maximise these as market awareness builds. Furthermore, assessing the legislation and the objectives of it, and considering this infrastructure against the backdrop of the recent confirmation that the Island will not appear on the OECD 'blacklist', I must say that I genuinely feel that the Isle of Man has a significant opportunity to do pension business with companies in many jurisdictions of the World. After all, what could be better than establishing or re-domiciling your Company's benefits structure in one of the few internationally recognised offshore centres, under a flexible yet well regulated framework - in fact industry feedback (both on and off the island) has so far been extremely encouraging"

As Michael believes " the Isle of Man and its business community, is a product that is second to none in the global market place".

As the initial consultative process on the Authority's proposals for international pensions regulation draws to a close, it is clear that the island is gearing itself accordingly. The new regulations separate the subordinate legislation required for the international market from that which will appear for domestic schemes in line with commitments made during the consultative process.

Bill Hastings, the Authority's Chief Executive is delighted that Mike, a Manxman, has decided to joined his team,

"Mike brings to the Authority an excellent, all-round knowledge both technical and market related. I am delighted at his decision to join us."

Michael lives in Douglas with his wife and three children.