Phoenix--GE Insurance Solutions made news when it was sold toSwiss Re for $6.8 billion last year, and now a companyrepresentative says they want to publicize that the change inownership is not slowing them down.

In the coming year the company plan is to grow new business by$35 million, said Lois Massa, vice president of sales for theprogram division of GE Insurance Solutions in its Warren, R.I.office.

Ms. Massa, who spoke here at the midyear conference of theNational Association of Professional Surplus Lines, Ltd., wasspreading the message that "we are open for business and doingthings more aggressively."

To meet their new business target, she said, company managementthinks it will require three programs, each generating about $10million. Since the Swiss Re takeover, Ms. Massa said GE InsuranceSolutions has been able to react more quickly in pursuing newbusiness because a simplified chain of command has speeded up theprocess.

She said the company currently has nine programs that generate$200 million in gross written premiums, and would like to writemore surplus lines as well as admitted business.

Among the surplus lines the company writes, she said, isprotection for bed and breakfasts--the kind of business thatdoesn't fit neatly into the standard language of an InsuranceServices Office contract.

Ms. Massa remarked that in her pursuit of business for thecompany she has learned to ignore standard wisdom that once acustomer opts to use a captive insurer for coverage they are lostto the standard market. She noted that as captives mature they mayrequire significant capitalization, which could make the operationless attractive.