has been published by Tillinghast-Towers Perrin and Towers Perrin Reinsurance with listings on Bermudian and US reinsurers.

The directory provides profiles of alternative market firms, including details on products, services and insights into trends that affect reinsurance buyers.

The volume is aimed at buyers and reinsurers.

Tillinghast-Towers Perrin estimates that the global alternative risk-financing market (as distinct from the US only) includes $87 billion of funded self-insurance, of which $25 billion is for workers compensation.

It also includes $30 billion of other alternative risk-transfer costs, of which $18 billion is for captives and $6 billion is for financial insurance.

These figures compare to $350 billion for the conventional insurance market.

Editor of the directory, Gregory Berg, said, "This is the first time that this valuable reinsurance source information has been published in one place.

We believe that a reference of companies providing specific lines of coverage, attachments and capacities will be invaluable to the insurance industry.'' He said that the directory may be expanded to cover worldwide resources in the 1998 edition, instead of just Bermudian and US reinsurers.

The 95-page directory includes profiles of important alternative market reinsurers, including specific data on production sources for alternative market accounts, preferred and avoided classes of business, lines of coverage offered, and preferred ranges of attachment points for property and casualty.

The reference work also contains data on maximum reinsurance capacity for property and casualty per risk as well as occurrence, casualty clash and per programme; annual net premiums written on alternative risk-transfer accounts; and, fronting capabilities, including licensing and filing status.

The book points out in an overview of the market that for reinsurance companies, "alternative market'' generally includes risk-financing entities that are not traditional insurance companies, but yet are eligible buyers of reinsurance.

These risk-financing entities include captive insurance companies, risk retention groups, interlocal risk pools, intrastate self insurance groups and self insurance trusts -- particularly for medical professional liability.

The alternative market is also sometimes defined to include self-insurance by individual corporations.

The directory also contains articles on size, segmentation and trends in the alternative market. Special spotlight reports focus on production sources, reinsurance documentation, losses from extra contractual obligations and in excess of policy limits (ECOs /XPLs), and ceding commissions.