XL Capital chief executive officer Brian O?Hara yesterday threw his weight behind calls for a single US insurance regulator.

Mr. O?Hara, speaking at XL?s second Congress in Boston, told the audience that the US, where insurance regulation and licensing is carried out by 50 individual state regulators, should follow the lead of the European Union, which has established a ?single passport? for reinsurers.

Mr. O?Hara also called for insurers worldwide to adopt a code of ethics to restore the industry?s reputation in the wake of a wave of lawsuits concerning ethical and professional breaches which have cost insurers $2 billion in fines.

On regulation, Mr. O?Hara said XL had become one of the first companies to take advantage of the European Union?s new Reinsurance Directive by establishing a European reinsurance company in Dublin with branch offices in the UK, France, Germany and Spain.

?Relying on the regulation of companies in their home jurisdictions, this directive creates a single passport for EU reinsurers,? he said. ?This single regulator approach will serve the EU well.

If adopted (in the US), perhaps facilitated by federal legislation, such a model could also serve the US well, creating regulatory efficiencies while at the same time preserving appropriate solvency security for the protection of policyholders.?

Mr. O?Hara also called for the industry to adopt a code of ethics in the wake of investigations launched by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the US Securities and Exchange Commission into so-called contingent commissions, bid rigging and the abuse of finite risk contracts.

Saying that ?several of the industry?s largest companies have paid out more than $2 billion in fines to date?, he added: ?While I am glad that XL emerged unscathed from this VAR catastrophe, many companies didn?t and the reputation of the industry as a whole was damaged.?

Mr. O?Hara said XL had built a culture based on the core values of ethics, teamwork, excellence, development and respect, and added: ?I believe the time has come for it to develop an enabling culture of integrity that will hold every company accountable and responsible for adherence to a set of professional core values.

?While I agree that a code of behaviour will not prevent wrong doing, I believe it will go some way towards encouraging trust and repairing the industry?s reputation in the minds of customers and shareholders.?

As a result, XL had embarked on an industry-wide review of corporate social responsibility programmes.

?We believe that this effort, which has already been joined by many members of the Institute even though it is in its formative stage, could lead to an industry-based coordinated approach to CSR planning.?

Mr. O?Hara also noted that the insurance industry was emerging from ?by far the most testing time in its history? having witnessed seven of the ten most expensive hurricanes in US history with total losses of approximately $58 billion in just 14 months ? from August, 2004 to October, 2005.

Mr. O?Hara added that the Bermuda insurance industry was likely to pay out almost $20 billion of those claims.

?Scientists may debate whether warming sea surface temperatures that influence hurricane activity are cyclical or if it is part of a long-term trend,? he said.

?But what is clear is that one of the key drivers of catastrophe losses is exposure growth.

?The numbers and values of properties at risk are expected to double every decade.?

As a result companies had replenished capital, established sidecar reinsurers like XL?s Cyrus Re, reduced exposures and raised prices for property catastrophe and marine and offshore energy risks and adopted new metrics like ?Value At Risk? which measures the impact of extreme events.

But he said the industry would only sustain the resilience it had shown since 2004 if it maintained strong underwriting discipline, sound risk management practices, sensible use of reinsurance, claims-paying capacity and the ability to earn investment income, and strong culture and values.