Bermuda's Max Capital Group has formed a New York-based operation to manage general underwriting, with an initial focus on casualty insurance policies for clients involved in the healthcarer industy.

The new company is called Max Managers USA and it will underwrite policies written by Max Specialty Insurance Company, Max Capital's US-based excess and surplus lines platform.

Bernard (Buddy) Anckner has been named a president (casualty) of Max Managers USA, effective immediately.

He has been with Max's Bermuda team since January 2003.

Max Capital Group chairman and CEO W. Marston (Marty) Becker, said: "The formation of Max Managers USA is a further step in our efforts to serve a broader range of corporate, public-sector and other customers, and to serve our customers in a broader range of ways. On behalf of all of us at Max, I want to congratulate Buddy Anckner on this important new role."

Stephen Vaccaro, Jr., president and CEO of Max Specialty Insurance Company, added: "Max Managers USA is a natural complement to the specialty/niche-driven underwriting team we have assembled at Max Specialty. And Buddy Anckner, with his extensive underwriting experience at Max and elsewhere in the casualty segment of the business, will be an important member of that team."

The company said in a statement that Max Managers USA will use Max Specialty Insurance Company paper and that, in general, "the Max Specialty policies underwritten by Max Managers USA will have lower attachment points than, and will thus complement, business currently being written by Max Bermuda, Max Capital's Bermuda operating company."