Bermuda-based reinsurer RenaissanceRe has received a subpoena from federal authorities asking about a type of policy regulators believe insurers may use to mask earnings.

RenRe, which is largely a property-catastrophe reinsurer, said it received the subpoena from the Southern District of New York about its use of finite risk reinsurance and related products.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer are also investigating these matters, RenaissanceRe said.

And another Bermuda reinsurer, PartnerRe Ltd., said yesterday it had also been subpoenaed by the US States Attorney for the Southern District of New York in regards to its finite reinsurance products.

Partner Re intends to cooperate fully in responding to this and other requests for information from regulatory authorities, pointing out that other insurers were also receiving similar requests.

A third Bermuda reinsurer, Platinum Underwriters Holdings, on Wednesday said it had received a federal grand jury subpoena from the US State Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

A Press officer in that office declined to comment on Platinum?s subpoena saying grand jury proceedings were secret.

RenRe said in its Wedesday statement it intended to cooperate with all regulatory requests received. A spokesman declined to comment on questions from asking the date by which RenRe must meet the terms of the subpoena, or whether the request received came in the form of a grand jury subpoena.

RenRe said, as other insurers have, that similar subpoenas had been sent out to other insurers.

The latest regulatory enquiry into RenRe?s business follows the company saying in March that misaccounting of business it did with a company it was a nine percent owner of ? finite risk reinsurance Inter-Ocean ? would mean a restatement of its four-year arrangement.

Inter-Ocean has since bowed out of the market, saying it was going into run-off or would meet claims commitments but not sell any more policies. Reinsurance from Inter-Ocean was typically backed by agreements from one of its ten or more parent companies.

RenRe?s move to restate its results led its board to rebuke chief executive officer James Stanard and four of his deputies for some ?mistakes? and lack of ?due care? in accounting for the Inter-Ocean contract.

A regulatory probe of insurance industry practices has expanded from initial scrutiny of insurer/broker dealings to use and accounting of non-traditional loss mitigation, or finite risk reinsurance policies. The most high profile example of the probe?s impact comes from American International Group (AIG), the company that the finite risk investigation has focused on. AIG?s own internal review, prompted by the regulatory enquiries, resulted in its restatement of five years of earnings to the tune of $3.9 billion less in reported profits.

Numerous insurers and reinsurers in the US, Bermuda and elsewhere have been on the receiving end of subpoenas in connection with the ongoing probe.

Although led by Mr. Spitzer, numerous other regulators have been conducting parallel investigations into the sale and use of finite risk because of concerns that insurers may have used the product more as a loan than reinsurance. Accounting rules for reinsurance are more favourable for reinsurance than for loans.

More than a dozen Bermuda-based companies, or their subsidiaries, have received regulatory subpoenas from US federal and state authorities since last November.

In the last week four Bermuda companies have been subpoenaed: Partner Re, RenRe, Platinum Underwriters Holdings Ltd. and Alea Group Holding.

Like RenRe, Platinum?s subpoena this week was from the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

In addition, Bermuda-based White Mountain?s US unit OneBeacon on Friday said it had received a new subpoena.

Other Bermuda companies having to comply with regulatory demands include ACE Limited, Arch Capital, AIG company Transatlantic, AXIS Capital, Everest Re, Imagine Re, Partner Re and XL Capital.