A new software development consultancy has launched in Bermuda to serve the Island’s burgeoning alternative risk transfer market.Treefrog Consulting offers risk system software development services to the Bermuda re/insurance industry.It says it plans to serve Bermuda’s growing traditional and alternative risk transfer industry with comprehensive risk system development services.“Reinsurers as well as CAT and ILS funds have long struggled in Bermuda finding the right team to build their core risk and portfolio management systems,” Treefrog president Dmitry Mnushkin said.“There are no local consultancies specialising in this space, thus forcing companies to look abroad for solutions. With the launch of Treefrog Consulting Ltd in Bermuda, we are proud to offer experienced, efficient and highly cost-competitive software development services specifically targeting this sector.”Mr Mnushkin has 14 years experience in building software for one of the world’s leading reinsurers, RenaissanceRe, where he says he gained valuable experience with the black box systems catastrophe reinsurers use to manage and price their risk.“This detailed design knowledge, coupled with a highly capable development team has positioned Treefrog to assist start-ups and established players alike develop and upgrade their systems to better understand and inform their risk and capital allocation strategies,” he said.One of Treefrog’s existing clients is Weston Insurance Company, a Florida-based wind-only property insurance specialist, which recently removed a significant amount of risk from Citizens Property Insurance Corporation's Coastal Account wind-only programme,Mr Mnushkin said.“We worked closely with Weston to make their portfolio analysis algorithm more efficient, and were able to reduce their portfolio optimisation run times by a factor of 20. We are now working with Weston to integrate this algorithm into their automated quoting system for new business."Weston president and COO Michael Lyons said: "We are very pleased to be working with Treefrog. Weston's ability to analyse the marginal reinsurance cost of assumed risk in real-time is a significant market differentiator, which greatly enhances Weston's enterprise risk management. Working with Treefrog has dramatically improved our system utilisation and average run times, which makes our tools more useful to us.”The specialised expertise Treefrog Consulting brings will contribute meaningfully to expanding Bermuda’s capacity to service both traditional and alternative risk transfer vehicles, Mr Mnushkin added.“We recognise that providing this service is not only good for us, but also makes it easier for new Class 3 and 4 exempt companies to operate on the island. We are excited to play our part in making Bermuda a more attractive place to do business.”Mr Mnushkin's partner in Treefrog is Bermudian Michael W Branco, who is the CEO of Fireminds Ltd which provides complementary IT services to Treefrog’s client base.For more information see www.treefrogconsulting.com