finite risk and were told how companies with cumbersome exposures to insure might find it a viable alternative to traditional insurance.

Ms Sheila Nicoll, vice president of J&H Intermediaries, and vice president of Bermuda Insurance Institute, explained that every risk, every client and every situation is assessed on its own merits.

Unlike traditional insurance where there are classes of coverage, finite risk products are generally tailor-made to the risk.

She said: "If you have better loss experience and better risk management than everyone else in your class, then you benefit from your own results and do not get pulled down when other people have losses.'' Ms Nicoll said that there is not a class of business that finite risk insurers would not consider writing. And the buyers find a less confrontational nature to the relationship, because in the absence of claims, both parties gain through profit sharing.

Mr. Jay S. Ralph, Centre Reinsurance (Bermuda) Ltd. president, said the term `finite risk' was introduced six years ago by the founders of his company, Mr.

Steven Gluckstern and Mr. Michael Palm.

"In traditional insurance, its very bizarre,'' said Mr. Ralph. "Winners are the clients that have had losses. And the losers are the clients who have had good loss experience.

"Finite risk coverage really aligns the interests of the reinsurer and the insured, enabling them both to benefit from the same contract.'' Chief financial officer for Skandinavian Reinsurance Company Ltd., Mr. David Brining, compared finite risk reinsurance to traditional forms of reinsurance.

He said: "Our finite risk reinsurance has a finite aggregate limit and can include many lines, versus the traditional method of buying specific excess liability by layer for each class.

"Finite risk reinsurance is more efficient and economical,'' he said. "We don't walk away with a bank, and the insured doesn't leave us holding the bag.''