Normandy America's reinsurance business will be handled by other executives experienced in that area.

"Also, One Liberty Plaza is a high-quality building and it's in the heart of the reinsurance business, where we belong."

But investors have been critical of the reinsurance business.

The company also announced it was withdrawing from the reinsurance business and from its modest international operations to concentrate capital on core businesses.

Q. How about targets in the insurance brokerage or reinsurance businesses?

Nearly half the reinsurance business is overseas, with Lloyd's of London being the most famous practitioner.

And a cloud still hangs over the second aspect of the industry's safety net - the reinsurance business.

More recently, Bermuda has been a successful pioneer of the highly-specialized reinsurance business.

At the end of the decade, the insurer added its own reinsurance business to the portfolio.

Once vilified by the corporate establishment, Yippie musings have now been turned into copy for the reinsurance business.