Assessing the fallout from a crackdown by authorities on brokerdealings, a regulator said she saw a stop in "notorious" laxness,while an underwriter viewed it as slowing the business process.

Their conflicting opinions were aired earlier this week at a NewYork conference for some members of the Professional LiabilityUnderwriting Society titled "The New Ethics of Insurance."

But regardless of description, more formal brokering proceduresare slowing things down in 2005, the executive said.

Stephen Sills, chief executive officer of Darwin ProfessionalUnderwriters in Farmington, Conn., said, "There had been kind of arelaxed informality that's disappeared with some of the largerbrokers now" when they are presenting risks to insurers other thanthe incumbent carriers.

His viewpoint was at sharp variance from that of Audrey Samers,deputy superintendent and general counsel for the New York StateInsurance Department. "I think what the insurance industry suffersfrom is this informality," she said.

According to Mr. Sills, "It was useful in the past when [abroker representative] said, 'This is what these people are payingnow. Is this something you can be helpful on?'"

He said that after Oct. 14, 2004 when New York Attorney GeneralEliot Spitzer unveiled charges that Marsh brokerage engaged inbid-rigging with insurers in exchange for hidden fees, it did notintroduce any new ethics to the business. Mr. Sills said it hadbrought about subtle changes to informal day-to-day dealingsbetween brokers and insurers.

Mr. Sills and Ms. Samers spoke on a panel that included a claimsprofessional and two lawyers. The announced goal of the ethicssession was to help professionals understand how to manage theircareers in the wake of Mr. Spitzer's brokerage suit.

"The name of this panel is a bit of a misnomer," Mr. Sills said."The ethics that existed years ago still apply today. I don't thinkthere's anything new here," he said.

"When you read about some of the things that have been takingplace, I don't think anybody would suggest that they wereacceptable under the old ethics," he said, explaining that becausebrokers engaged in steering activities and other "things theyshouldn't have been doing, that doesn't mean that new rulessuddenly apply."

Ms. Samers told attendees that a career in insurance remains anhonorable one in spite of the Spitzer revelations.

"The commissioner [Howard Mills] has been very clear [in] makingpublic statements that the whole industry is not corrupt," shesaid, advising that the activities that regulators are looking atinvolve conflicts of interest and failure to discloseinformation.

"If you enter a deal and you think that if it saw the light itwouldn't be consummated--or a regulator would be upset--that'ssomething, when you go home at night, you should think about whatyou're doing," she advised.

Ms. Samers found herself at odds with Mr. Sills after he spokeabout the more formal everyday dealings between brokers andinsurers he's witnessed.

She reported that the current focus of the department--on probesinto finite transactions (which differ from traditional reinsurancedeals in that risk transfer is more limited)--highlights the lackof formality. "The majority of companies don't have writtenpolicies on evaluating risk transfer in insurance contracts," shesaid.

She continued, "Going back to the World Trade Center, there wasnever an insurance policy" in place.

"The insurance industry is notorious for its informality. And Ithink a little more formality would be helpful."

Mr. Sills, speaking about less formal days when a broker mightreveal to a carrier what a client was currently paying forinsurance, said time and effort was saved when such information wasavailable.

If the carrier being approached was not interested in writingthe risk, given that information, then brokers didn't have tobother sending submissions to the uninterested carriers, and thecarriers didn't have to spend days underwriting the risks, hesaid.

And brokers could honestly tell clients that they approachedcarriers, indicating which might be interested in writing thecoverage and which were not, when seeking the client direction onhow to proceed with the bidding process.

"The elimination of a useful informality in the business" isparticularly apparent for larger brokers who "are playing much moreto a script" which "has stifled the flow of the way things work,"he said.

He continued: "We're not seeing much of a change from thesmaller brokers. In fact, to listen to some of the smaller brokers,you would think they're not reading the papers."

Once things start to settle down, he predicted the business willstart to flow more normally.