Benfield, the world's leading independent reinsurance and risk intermediary, today announced the launch of eCatFac™, a groundbreaking electronic placing platform which facilitates the placing of facultative reinsurance for cedants with large catastrophe exposures.
"Facultative reinsurance is a highly customised tool which is increasingly being used by risk carriers to manage catastrophe exposure and terrorism issues including the mitigation of peak exposures on large commercial property books", commented Elliot Richardson, Head of Benfield's global Facultative Solutions team.
Developed exclusively for Benfield by eReinsure® and available via http://www.ecatfac.com/, eCatFac provides customers with the option of using a portal to Benfield's 100-strong global Facultative Solutions team thus enabling any Benfield customer to access eReinsure's web-based reinsurance platform for the purpose of establishing facultative catastrophe terms.
Grahame Chilton, Chief Executive of Benfield said: "As the world's leading global facultative intermediary, Benfield is delighted to provide eCatFac which will enable us to enhance our efficiency in quoting and placing facultative catastrophe covers and, at the same time, ensure contract certainty for our customers around the world."
This spot-fac facility is a further addition to Benfield's established 'CatFac' offering which was developed by Benfield's Catastrophe Modelling team in Minneapolis. CatFac uses the group's Dynamic Portfolio Optimisation methodology in combination with specially developed software to help risk carriers identify the catastrophe exposed policies in their portfolios for which facultative cover can be used to reinsure those risks causing exposure spikes.
Users accessing the website for the first time are required to register to obtain a user name and password. The reinsurance buyer then completes a three-part application. The eReinsure® platform both notifies the buyer when a quote is available and acts as the communication channel for negotiating pricing and coverage terms. A complete electronic record is maintained and final documentation can be accessed via the system.
Igor Best-Devereux, Chief Executive of eReinsure, commented: "We are very pleased to be able to extend our relationship with Benfield by providing the technology that will enable the group to enhance its efficiency in the pricing and placing of catastrophe facultative reinsurance covers."
About Benfield: Benfield is the world's leading independent reinsurance and risk intermediary. Its customers include many of the world's major insurance and reinsurance companies as well as government entities and global corporations. Benfield operates from more than 30 locations worldwide. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BFD. www.benfieldgroup.com
About eReinsure: eReinsure offers a neutral and secure means by which insurers, reinsurers and brokers can more efficiently manage reinsurance transactions. It is designed to allow users to communicate, review, negotiate and manage risks, and archive documents. The patent pending technology automatically tracks each step of a transaction, providing information to monitor compliance and helping to ensure contract certainty. http://www.ereinsure.com/
