XL Insurance Launches Political Risk and Trade Credit Unit

XL Insurance, the global insurance underwriting operations of XL Group plc, reports that it is establishing a new political risk and trade credit (PRTC) business unit. In its announcement, the insurer named Richard Maxwell as its chief underwriting officer, who will be based in New York and will manage a team of political risk and trade credit underwriters in both New York and London.

The new division will offer customers a range of political risk and trade credit insurance products, such as buyer credit, supplier credit, confiscation risk, contract frustration and, in the near future, political violence insurance on a standalone basis.

The team’s target market will be financial institutions, commodity traders, exporters and manufacturers involved in cross-border lending, trading development and projects mainly in emerging markets, and spanning across a variety of industries and occupancy classes. The team will be able to write business out of the main business centers of New York, London and Singapore, reports the company.

Maxwell joins XL Insurance with a 30-plus year career, most recently having served QBE as global head, structured trade and political risk, managing operations in New York, London and Singapore. Prior to his most recent position with QBE, he served as chief underwriting officer at Exporters International Inc., where he helped facilitate the acquisition of the underwriting platform by QBE in 2008. In his new position, he will report to Neil Robertson, XL’s chief executive of global specialty in London.