XL Capital is to provide up to $500m of capacity for commercial property insurance through its insurance operations.
The company said it would underwrite global property risks on a selective basis.
Insurance operations chief executive Clive Tobin said: “Many customers are looking for access to large lines of coverage backed by financial strength and high ratings.
“With the active support of our reinsurers, we are now able to meet this demand globally, while at the same time providing access to our proven technical underwriting expertise, superior customer service execution and our global network.
“This is an important strategic initiative that will enable us to compete selectively for entire programmes.”
Chief underwriting officer for global property Robert Klepper said: “With our enhanced focus on the middle and upper-middle market, XL offers property clients a quality alternative with limits and credit quality that currently do not exist in that market segment.
“Our new capabilities enable us to take on the role of sole provider of insurance capacity, in addition to providing comprehensive risk engineering, claims and fronting services for many of these clients.
“However, where we are unable to bind an entire programme, for example where we are co-insuring with another carrier, we will not be offering our full capacity of $500m. In these situations, our existing $250m maximum capacity will continue to apply.”
XL's property insurance division provides all risk global property coverages to large corporations in a range of industries including manufacturing, high technology and commercial real estate.
