Partner Reinsurance Company

Partner Reinsurance Company, the $1 billion property catastrophe reinsurer which opened for business last month, has firmly defended its controversial policy of offering capacity direct to reinsurance buyers.Unlike other markets on the island, Partner Re prefers not to conduct business through placing brokers — a philosophy which has not endeared it to the reinsurance intermediaries.

Partner Reinsurance Company, the $1 billion property catastrophe reinsurer which opened for business last month, has firmly defended its policy of offering capacity direct to reinsurance buyers.Partner Re president and chief executive officer Herbert Haag said this week that Swiss Re, one of Partner Re's founding shareholders and the supplier of essential underwriting services to the catastrophe company, had already established a "clear tradition" of writing direct.