NEW YORK--The challenging financial climate is an opportunity for insurers to make needed changes to create leaner, more efficient and competitive organizations, according to the president of Lloyd's North America, LoriAnn Lowery.

"People are talking about the glass being half empty, as we're seeing people let go--the redundancy factor," she said during a speech here to members of the Association of Professional Insurance Women.

However, she noted, what happens in these scenarios is that "there is an opportunity to prune. We should look at this as a glass half-full because there are exciting things going on in our industry. The opportunity to be creative and innovative is greater than it has been in years."

Ms. Lowery recalled how in 1999, a cover of a Time-Life Europe magazine depicted a headstone reading, "Rest in Peace" for Lloyd's. "But because of creation and innovation," she said, "Lloyd's is now in the strongest position ever."

The current financial crisis is "everybody's responsibility," she said, "from the buyers who couldn't afford the homes, to rating agencies. And any time you have the pressure for profitability we have had with financial institutions over the past 10 years, it puts a speculative bent on everyone trying to get in and figure out how they are going to make the analysts' earnings requirement."

She added that Lloyd's--a market that has been around for almost 323 years--takes the current financial climate "in stride."

Ms. Lowery said the industry is historically resilient. In the 1980s, she said, product liability and directors and officers liability had "basically dried up in terms of capacity." What did the industry do?

"We went out and formed ACE and XL...We become creative when things get difficult. We were able to survive two World Wars, Vietnam, Korea, Sept. 11, 2001, and the Eliot Spitzer investigation [into insurer-broker bid-rigging], among other things," she said.

Another challenge for the industry, she noted, is balancing the needs of a global marketplace.

"Now is the time to build up your organizational infrastructure," she said, advising companies to watch "globalization versus localization."

"The challenge is that we're all going global, but clients want regional servicing centers and local centers of excellence," she added, noting the industry needs people to work locally and understand local limitations. "There are cultural differences, and when servicing clients, nuances in cultural differences need to be understood," she added.

"We need to embrace people from other areas and bring them into our organizations so that emerging markets in 10 years won't be emerging markets--they will be tangible, viable markets that we deal with on a day-to-day basis," she said.

Ms. Lowery also predicted that the pace of regulatory change is "going to be fast." Noting that she is not in favor of "changing things just to change things," she said while regulators must protect consumers, they also need to "keep the market open and free."

She observed that a number of state insurance commissioners "understand the need to put together focused and deliberate regulation that enhances the industry rather than squashing or suffocating the industry."

Regarding the possibility of establishing federal oversight of U.S. insurers, she said while she believes there will always be a need for state regulations, some financial products--such as financial guarantees, credit enhancements, surety products, catastrophe bonds and finite reinsurance--may demand federal involvement.

A federal insurance information or oversight office should consist of a combination of members from the industry, regulators of insurance and regulators who oversee the financial institutions marketplace, she said.

"If we're going to blur the lines of insurance and financial institutions, then we might as well figure out that we need oversight from people who understand the implications of broader-based issues such as financial products," she commented.

Ms. Lowery also emphasized that the industry needs to have a national presence. Concerning the American International Group crisis, she cited frustration watching coverage on CNN, CNBC and other outlets comment that New York Insurance Commissioner Eric Dinallo wasn't doing his job in keeping AIG's credit default swap trading in check.

"I can't say how many times I wanted to call and say it was the [federal] Office of Thrift that dealt with that particular piece," she said, adding that at the cash-strapped conglomerate, "the insurance entities of AIG are doing fine."

"We need to have our own voice," she said. "The financial institution universe has phenomenal mouthpieces--any time there is an issue within their industry, they're on every single channel talking that they're resilient, they're great, they're terrific."

She added that "there is no more resilient industry than the insurance industry." In a time of a recession, she said, "every lender potentially wants additional insurance on their loans. Everyone who's building a house wants additional insurance because of counterparty credit issues."

However, according to Ms. Lowery, insurers need to "come to the table with more creative ideas and more ability to give to the insured--but who in our industry is explaining that? We need to be our own best advocates."

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