The Once and Future: New York Insurance Exchange: A Searching Overview by Peter Bickford (Reset) (Cover Story‪)‬

On March 31, 1980, The New York Insurance Exchange opened to great fanfare in Lower Manhattan. The Exchange was the culmination of several years of legislative, regulatory and industry effort to establish a Lloyd's type insurance market in the US--a market consisting of multiple syndicates, underwriting managers, brokers and intermediaries operating under a common set of rules on a common trading floor. The next day, April Fools Day, started the longest transit strike in New York City history. Some say this was an omen of things to come for the fledgling exchange. And after an initial period of spectacular growth and expansion, the Exchange ceased operations a short seven years after opening with a number of its syndicates having been declared insolvent and in various stages of receivership or run-off. More than two decades later, Governor Patterson listed in his State-of-the-State message a number of economic initiatives to be pursued by his administration. Among them was a commitment to "rebuild the New York Insurance Exchange," adding that: "By bringing together the buyers and sellers of complex commercial insurance, the Exchange will reaffirm our status as the focal point of international trade and finance. It will also curtail the types of transactions that were unregulated that decimated the global economy."