Tokio Marine Europe Insurance Limited (TMEI) has filed for Chapter 15 protection from creditors in a New York bankruptcy court for a book of run-off reinsurance.

The UK-based firm, which writes predominantly primary insurance business, put the reinsurance business in question into run-off in 2004.

It then placed the run-off book into a solvent scheme of arrangement which came into force in April this year. The Chapter 15 protection is designed to ensure the scheme is honoured in the US.

"The high court approved the scheme in February of this year. This technicality is really to ensure that that decision is respected in the US," TMEI executive operations officer Alastair Blundell told insurancetimes.co.uk.

Blundell said the scheme was unanimously approved by creditors in the UK and so the company is not expecting any problems in the US. "This is a belt-and-braces approach," he said.

The filing for Chapter 15 protection in the US is no reflection of the solvency of TMEI, Blundell explained. "The key message is that Tokio Marine remains solvent and Tokio Marine Europe remains AA- rated by S&P," he said. "The FSA has been kept informed and has approved this scheme from the outset."

The scheme covers inwards reinsurance business written by TMEI through stamp numbers T0304, T0403 and T0502 and reinsurance business transferred to the company by Tokio Re.

Blundell described the scheme as a "tidying up excercise" given TMEI's status as the Tokio Marine group's direct arm in Europe.

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