The Premier will today ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

Michael Dunkley has been invited to perform the traditional afternoon ceremony at the world-famous exchange after he takes part in a major conference on disaster recovery in the city.

The New York Recovery and Resilience Leadership Forum, organised by Bermudian reinsurer RenaissanceRe, takes place today at the NYSE and will involve nearly 200 policymakers, insurance industry experts, scientists, and environmentalists.

Mr Dunkley will speak about Bermuda’s major role in the property and catastrophe reinsurance market and its supply of services to US insurers.

The Premier will also be interviewed by Bloomberg, the prestigious business newspaper the Wall Street Journal and others.

The conference was organised to discuss lessons learnt after Superstorm Sandy hit New York four years ago, causing massive flooding and damage.

Other speakers include Samantha Medlock, of the US White House Office of Management and Budget.

Kevin O’Donnell, RenaissanceRe’s chief executive officer, said: “As the 2016 Atlantic storm season commences and with the impact of Sandy still being felt, this Forum and these conversations are timely.

“RenaissanceRe will continue to work with our clients, brokers and other partners worldwide to accelerate resiliency and to close the natural disaster insurance coverage gap that leaves communities too exposed.”

Stephen Weinstein, group general counsel at RenaissanceRe and chairman of its Risk Sciences Foundation, added: “The rising risks of natural disasters are too material to be solved by any one stakeholder group and open discussion among government officials, business leaders, researchers, environmentalists and others is critical to both identifying solutions and seeing to their implementation.

“We are grateful for the participation of so many committed leaders at this forum.”