XL Insurance yesterday announced an expansion of its property loss prevention services business with the hiring of eight new field engineers.

The new employees of XL Global Asset Protection Services (XL GAPS) will assume their roles in France, Germany, Spain, China, Singapore and the US.

Tim Heinze, managing director of XL GAPS said: "In times like these companies can't risk a potential major loss and therefore engineering services are becoming extremely important to them.

"XL GAPS' consultancy approach helps identify potential issues, propose solutions or alternatives as well as offer practical loss mitigation guidance. Our customers expect a local language service that also meets internationally-recognised best practice.

"With these new hires we have significantly improved our footprint across various continents, especially Europe, meeting the growing demand for our loss prevention advice. Having engineers in major industrial regions enables better and faster customer service."

XL GAPS has over 150 engineers in 18 countries and offers global expertise and local solutions across North and South America, Europe, Australia and Asia. The average XL GAPS engineer has 19 years of industry experience.

XL insurance is the global insurance arm of Bermuda-based XL Capital Ltd.