NEW YORK (Reuters) ? The sudden departure of RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd.?s chief executive during an ongoing accounting investigation sent the Bermuda-based reinsurer?s shares down as much as ten percent yesterday, until the company reassured investors that business would continue as usual.

RenaissanceRe shares fell to a 30-month low, a day after the company said CEO James Stanard had resigned in light of an ongoing probe into restated financial results, Controller Marty Merritt had left and Chief Financial Officer John Lummis would retire in 2006.

The investigation comes during an industrywide probe by regulators into finite risk insurance.

Regulators are concerned that this type of coverage is used to sidestep rules by labelling what could be considered loans as insurance, making company financials appear stronger.

The shares regained some ground after newly appointed CEO Neill Currie, who co-founded RenaissanceRe with Stanard in 1993, said the new management team and regulatory review posed a challenge but there had been no staff defections.

?The core engine of RenRe has been untouched by these matters. We?re fully prepared to execute our strategy,? Currie, who rejoined the company in July, told a conference call.

He also dismissed concerns that losses in the third quarter triggered by hurricanes would mean RenaissanceRe needed to sell shares or other securities to raise new capital.

The suggestion that the company did not need to raise capital coupled with the possibility that it could lower some reserves and that company President Bill Riker would return to a greater workload after cutting back in April for medical treatment encouraged investors, said Cochran, Caronia & Co. analyst Adam Klauber.

?We don?t think RenRe is still out of the woods,? Klauber said, but the situation is not as bad as expected.

On Tuesday, ay Gelb, an analyst at Lehman Brothers, wrote in a note to clients: ?RenaissanceRe shares are likely to be under pressure until investors gain confidence in the new management team?s ability to deliver attractive returns in a rapidly changing property catastrophe reinsurance market.?

By yesterday afternoon, RenaissanceRe shares had recovered from a low of $34.50 ? their lowest since March 2003 ? and were off 4.66 percent at $36.60.

Since the matter emerged in February, RenaissanceRe shares have fallen about 30 percent. The Standard & Poor?s insurance index has risen more than five percent.

Analysts said reassurances over the business bolstered the stock price but the loss of highly-regarded Stanard was viewed sceptically.

?The reaction of the board does in our view seem excessive and begs the question of whether there was more than met the eye,? Deutsche Bank Securities said in a research note.

RenaissanceRe in February said it planned to restate financial results for 2001 through 2003 to correct errors discovered in an internal review over how it had accounted for reinsurance bought from Inter-Ocean Holdings Ltd. Inter-Ocean, which was partly owned RenaissanceRe, closed in April.

Accounting rules have been recently changed to show that certain uses of the finite-risk insurance products are actually lending agreements and must be accounted for as such.

Stanard in July received a so-called Wells Notice from the US Securities and Exchange Commission indicating he might be accused of wrongdoing, and the company in September received a similar Wells Notice. It is cooperating with regulators.

Stanard, via his lawyer James Mathias of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary U.S. LLP, said in a statement that he strongly disagreed with any suggestion that he had been aware of or intended that RenRe engage in transactions that did not satisfy accounting standards or that he had engaged in or condoned fraudulent conduct.