Executives from two leading Bermuda companies are among the founder members of a new body established by global reinsurers to put the industry's case to lawmakers and regulators.

PartnerRe and XL Capital will be among the 10 companies, plus the Lloyd's of London market, to be represented in The Global Reinsurance Forum (GRF)

The new forum was launched this weekend at the "Rendez-Vous de Septembre", an annual get-together of reinsurers and clients in Monte Carlo.

Effectively a talking shop of leading reinsurance executives, it will seek to promote a "stable, innovative and competitive reinsurance market environment on a worldwide basis", its founding mission statement said.

It will begin as a grouping of chief executive officers and chairmen from Gen Re, Hannover Re, Lloyd's, Munich Re, RGA, Scor, Swiss Re, Toa Re, and Transatlantic Re, as well as the two Bermuda giants. Its first chairman is Denis Kessler, CEO of Scor.

The GRF's main objectives will be to:

• Develop industry positions on regulatory, legal, tax and accounting developments affecting the reinsurance industry.

• Represent industry positions towards relevant regulatory and supervising organizations, especially international organisations.

• Promote a worldwide, open and fair framework for the development of reinsurance markets.

• Advance the understanding of the value of reinsurance to the economy.

Mr. Kessler said: "The global reinsurance industry is facing a changing international environment, especially with regard to regulatory matters. In order to address these challenges, the leading global reinsurers have come together to form the GRF.

"Today there is no such global representation for the reinsurance industry with the clear mandate to promote a regulatory framework that facilitates global risk transfer through reinsurance and other reinsurance-linked capital solutions.

"GRF will also work in conjunction with local or regional reinsurance associations on issues that have an international dimension."

At the launch meeting, Kessler was reported as saying that the GRF would seek to ensure the industry was not viewed as compatible with a banking model in regulation and to address issues relating to new tax proposals such as the Neal Bill in the US, as well as collateral and solvency regulation around the world.