A high-profile brokerage start-up seeking to fill a void left by scandals over improper dealings between brokers and the insurers they place business for has garnered $300 million in private equity backing.

The new firm ? Integro ? is headed by famed insurance industry veteran Bob Clements and two other insurance stalwarts that Mr. Clements, a former Marsh & McLennan president, recruited from his days with the leading brokerage now under a cloud.

Beleaguered Marsh hit a snag last year when New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer launched a civil suit alleging broker compensation abuses and illegal bid rigging between the broker and some of the firms it went to for insurance to fulfil client?s risk management needs.

The two joining Mr. Clements at Integro, also former Marsh executives, are Peter Garvey and Roger Egan.

The trio said Integro ? from the Latin word meaning ?make well, make better? ? will be headquartered in New York and positioned as a fresh alternative for a sector now tarnished by the allegations of industry abuses.

Both Mr. Clements and Mr. Garvey left Marsh without taint but Mr. Egan fell amid the scandal.

Mr. Clements is no stranger to Bermuda with founding ties to at least four of the Island?s established insurance and reinsurance companies. He is best known on the Island as being instrumental in the formation of both ACE Limited and XL Capital ? with the story of his sketching out the concepts for both insurance giants on a cocktail napkin while midway on a transatlantic flight now a widespread industry talking point.

Integro is to have a Bermuda office, as well as offices in London, Toronto, and across the US.

The company said it will be a full-service insurance firm providing dedicated brokerage and risk management services to commercial clients on a global basis.

Mr. Clements said risk managers, corporate executives and directors are, in the current environment, increasingly concerned with aligning their interests with that of their advisors and trading partners.

?Over the last eight years large users of insurance watched helplessly as their competitive choice for brokers narrowed from seven serious contenders to less than three,? he said.

?We don?t think that?s a healthy condition, and furthermore, we don?t think this is a zero sum game.?

Integro will focus exclusively on the business of assessing risk and securing competitive insurance programmes for commercial and institutional enterprises that have large and/or complex risks with specialised insurance needs.

The company?s management say this will all be offered from a company free from conflicts of interest, and any perceptions of conflict.

?We think insurance broking is a terrific profession in its own right, one that clients value greatly when they find a talented broker who cares tremendously about them and their business. We?re creating a home for those brokers and their clients,? Mr. Clements said.