Call for US to emulate UK's Pool Re

NEW YORK - US insurance executives are calling on Congress to form an insurance pool, similar to the UK's Pool Re, to provide terrorism coverage following the September 11 attacks. The calls for some form of federal backstop come amid growing concerns that when current reinsurance agreements expire, they will only be renewed with a terrorism exclusion. Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, Dean O'Hare, chairman and chief executive of the Chubb Corp, warned that the industry could weather the losses of September 11, but that a series of terrorist attacks or other catastrophes of similar magnitude would call into question the solvency of the insurance industry.