and reinsurers into the convergence market.

The unit, named XL structured enterprise risk, will focus on programmes blending insurance, risk financing and elements of financial guarantee. Clive Tobin will move from heading the XL capital products unit to take charge of the structured enterprise risk team.

The team will support the traditional underwriting at subsidiaries XL Insurance Ltd. and XL Mid Ocean Reinsurance Ltd.

XL Capital president and chief executive officer Brian O'Hara said the capital products unit will continue to focus on financial guarantee products in the monoline sector of the industry.

"With the convergence of the insurance and capital markets, we see increasing demand from our clients for customised solutions to a wide array of insurance and financial risks,'' he said. "These solutions require multi-disciplined skills, such as financial and legal structuring, together with the ability to internally manage these risks or trade them efficiently with the reinsurance and capital markets.'' The unit is being formed as a means of bridging products offered by the insurance and reinsurance arms of XL Capital, XL Insurance president and chief executive officer Robert Cooney said.

"We see insurance and reinsurance as a powerful vehicle to package a portfolio of risks into single programmes with significant accounting and execution flexibility,'' he said.