RenaissanceRe chairman and chief executive James N. Stanard yesterday resigned from the company he founded amid a regulatory probe into the reinsurer?s restatement of a finite risk contract earlier in the year.

RenRe said Mr. Stanard?s departure was ?in light of the ongoing investigations resulting from the company?s restatement of its financial results?.

Mr. Stanard, 56, was issued a Wells notice by regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission in July indicating he could be personally investigated. At issue is the company?s March restatement of a four-year arrangement with a Bermuda reinsurer, Inter-Ocean Holdings Ltd., which is now in run-off.

Neil A. Currie, a former RenRe executive who left the company in 1997, replaces Mr. Stanard as chief executive. Mr. Currie returned to RenRe in July, taking on responsibility for marketing and client relations, and quickly assumed responsibility for the company?s specialty reinsurance business.

That unit was previously overseen by Michael Cash, who left the company in July after refusing to accept an SEC subpoena. Mr. Cash received a Wells notice at the same time as Mr. Stanard, according to a company statement at the time.

RenRe also announced yesterday that Marty Merritt, who was financial controller until April, had also left the company. And chief financial officer and chief operating officer John M. Lummis said he will resign when his contract expires in June 2006.

?Changing management is what they need to do to get the settlement with the SEC and I'm assuming that is what this all means,? Gary Ransom, an analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton Inc. in Hartford, Connecticut, told Bloomberg News.

RenRe?s restatement followed the discovery that the Inter-Ocean contracts did not contain sufficient risk transfer to be accounted for under reinsurance accounting. RenRe held a nine percent stake in Inter-Ocean, which stopped underwriting new business in April.

A Wells notice indicates the SEC may recommend civil enforcement action alleging violations of federal securities laws. Recipients have the opportunity to respond before any formal recommendation is made.

RenRe last night said it continues to cooperate with the regulatory investigation.

Mr. Currie is to be appointed to RenRe?s board, and a new non-executive chairman, W. James MacGinnitie, was named yesterday.

?The Board has been monitoring this situation very closely and has concluded that at this point it is best for our company, our people and our shareholders to begin to put this matter behind us,? said Mr. MacGinnitie, who has been a RenRe director since 2000.

Mr. Stanard founded RenRe after a void in property-catastrophe reinsurance capacity following Hurricane Andrew, the devastating 1992 storm that caused billions of dollars in damage across Florida.

RenRe was one of the first of a wave of new reinsurers to get off the ground after Andrew, with Mr. Stanard having worked out the business plan for a new Bermuda property-catastrophe reinsurer at his Baltimore home over the 1992 Thanksgiving holiday.

?Jim has worked tirelessly to build this company into an industry leader, and has assembled a first-rate team,? Mr. MacGinnitie said in the company?s statement yesterday.

Under Mr. Stanard, RenRe saw more than a decade of quarter-on-quarter profitability. He is a former Bermuda Market Leader of the year and frequently topped the league tables for executive compensation.

The company last night posted a $322 million net loss compared to a net loss of $348 million in the year-ago period. RenRe has sustained heavy storm losses, largely from Atlantic hurricanes, both in the third quarter this year and last.

The company also disclosed last night that it could post losses in the fourth quarter of between $250 million and $300 million from Hurricane Wilma, the October storm that hit southern Florida and the Caribbean.