Bankers Trust Corporation has agreed to sell its insurance products business to Swiss-based RR Holding Company Ltd., which controls Rhine Reinsurance Co.

Ltd. of Hamilton, Bermuda (Rhine Re) and Rhine Reinsurance Company Ltd. of Basel, Switzerland.

RR Holding was created by Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts.

Bankers Trust will retain a minority interest in the combined entity, and both Bankers Trust and Rhine Re said they foresaw significant business opportunities in continuing to work together after the sale.

Rhine Re chairman and chief executive officer Max F. Furrer said: "We are particularly pleased to have Bankers Trust's insurance products group join the Rhine Re Group. We are impressed with the expertise of their staff in the domain of financially engineered risk transfer products. Their special skills will substantially enhance the scope and quality of service we provide to our customers.'' "In today's environment, as reinsurance products are increasingly blended with financial risk considerations, coordination of our traditional risk taking skills, the finite risk skills of the team joining us, and the capital markets expertise of Bankers Trust represents a unique and powerful combination.

"We will now possess all the financial and risk taking skills to meet our clients' increasingly complex risk management needs.'' The business being transferred was launched by Bankers Trust in 1990, in early recognition of the continuing convergence of the worlds of insurance and finance.

It provides risk and capital management products to insurers and reinsurers and consists of five insurance vehicles: a life and a property and casualty company domiciled in the state of Delaware, a reinsurance intermediary domiciled in Delaware, and a life and a property and casualty company domiciled in the Channel Islands.

Rhine Re, established in 1976, is an internationally operating reinsurance company with branch offices in Singapore and Toronto. On December 19, 1997 the Rhine Re companies were assigned an A- CPA-rating from Standard & Poor's, based on the companies' excellent capitalisation, their significantly improved financial flexibility, strong operational controls and high quality investment portfolio.

"This strategic alliance will enhance the ability of both firms to provide combined financial risk management and insurance products to their clients, especially in the small to medium sized market,'' said Richard A. Marin, managing director of Bankers Trust. This is a market segment that has significant growth potential and where access to multiple sources of capital -- debt, equity, and reinsurance -- fits nicely within the capabilities of the sponsoring partners.'' The team joining the Rhine Re Group is led by Anne McMillen and will report to the chief executive officer of Rhine Re. The group will spearhead the integration of capital market products, including insurance risk securitization, with the traditional reinsurance activities of Rhine Re. In addition, this initiative will expand Rhine Re's market presence in the United States.

Bankers Trust Corporation is the seventh largest US bank holding company, with assets of over $172 billion and offices in more than 55 countries. Its principal subsidiaries -- Bankers Trust Company, BT Alex. Brown Incorporated and Bankers Trust International PLC -- hold leadership positions in leveraged lending, high yield securities, equity underwriting and distribution, strategic advisory, and risk management.

Bankers Trust is one of the world's largest investment managers, with more than $365 billion assets under management, and is a leading provider of securities-processing services, with $2.3 trillion in global assets under custody. Through its private client services group, Bankers Trust provides asset management, brokerage, trust, risk management and other services to individuals and families.