Catlin Group Limited, a Bermuda-based insurer that counts London as the base for its largest operations, continued its expansion plans in the US yesterday with the opening of an underwriting office in New York City.

The opening of the office is part of the company?s plan to strengthen its on-the ground presence in the US. Earlier this year, it opened Catlin US, which is headquartered in Atlanta and underwrites specialty classes of property/casualty insurance for US clients.

Catlin US recently acquired property/casualty insurance company, American Indemnity Company, that will soon begin underwriting business under the Catlin brand. It is currently an admitted insurer in 27 states and Catlin US plans to seek approval to be admitted in other states.

?We want to hire more people on-ground in the US and open more offices so that rather than being a traditional wholesale relationship where we?re sitting in London and going through a network of brokers, we want to work as closely as possible and as closely as regulations allow, with the client and the originating broker,? said James Burcke, Catlin?s head of communications in a telephone interview.

The New York office will be staffed by an 11-member professional liability underwriting team, headed by Senior Vice President John Van Decker. He and the other members of the team have joined Catlin US from Quanta US Holdings Inc. They will now underwrite various classes of professional liability and directors & officers (D&O) liability insurance.

The professional liability classes include coverage for financial institutions, real estate agents, lawyers, accountants and other professionals.

Richard Banas, chief executive officer of Catlin US, said that the New York team came to Quanta with a successful track record.

?Catlin is already well known in the US as an underwriter of healthcare liability insurance, and the skills and expertise of our New York team will strengthen Catlin?s position in the broader professional liability insurance market,? he said.

Besides the New York office and Atlanta headquarters, Catlin US also has offices in Houston, New Orleans and San Francisco. It also opened an office in Hong Kong this week ? its third in Asia. That office, which serves Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong, will allow Catlin to write risk that is uncorrelated to US catastrophe risk