NEW YORK—The effort to revive the New York Insurance Exchange is getting a new push, with the superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department seeking to pick up where his predecessor left off.

The exchange would be a Lloyd's of London-style marketplace through which buyers could purchase insurance and reinsurance, and where capital providers and others who want to take on risk could form syndicates.

Early last year, then-Superintendent Eric Dinallo suggested the Insurance Department consider reviving the exchange. Mr. Dinallo resigned in July, but James J. Wrynn, confirmed as Dinallo's successor in September, likes the idea, said Matthew J. Gaul, special counsel at the department.

“He's spoken very favorably about (the exchange) with a number of people from industry, and he's very interested in the concept,” Mr. Gaul said in an interview last week.

The original NYIE opened in 1980 but closed in 1987 due to inadequate capital, poor claims experience, soft market conditions, and other factors.

The department's effort last year to revive the exchange was eclipsed by more pressing priorities related to the financial crisis, but Mr. Wrynn's appointment has given it more attention, Mr. Gaul said.

“It's now coming to the fore again, particularly with the new superintendent coming in and reviewing what's going on in the department (and) industry and setting the priorities for things he really wants to put his energies behind,” Mr. Gaul said.

Mr. Wrynn is evaluating a list of industry officials to form a potential advisory committee on the issue, Mr. Gaul said. The department planned to form such a committee late last year, but industry officials were reluctant to participate because of more pressing priorities, Mr. Gaul said. But reviving the exchange will need industry leadership to succeed, he said.

“It's something that needs to be industry-driven—we can provide the framework, but, ultimately, the industry needs to step up and want to do this,” he said. “This is something former Superintendent Dinallo had said publicly that I know Superintendent Wrynn agrees with.”

The Insurance Department has been talking with local, state and federal government officials about the idea. The exchange may need favorable tax treatment to compete with offshore reinsurers in Bermuda, Ireland and elsewhere, Mr. Gaul said. Department officials also have discussed the idea of reviving the exchange with industry representatives, and their reaction has been positive but somewhat reluctant, Mr. Gaul said.

James Veach, an insurance attorney with Mound Cotton Wollan & Greengrass in New York, said the time is right for the idea, given the Obama administration's stated interest in stimulating the economy and combating offshore tax havens.

“With throwing billions of dollars here and there...now's the time to invest a little bit in something that would translate into visible jobs,” Mr. Veach said. Operating costs in Bermuda and other offshore areas are high, and a new exchange that offered a comparable marketplace and tax treatment based in New York would be attractive to insurers and reinsurers, he said.

But Steven K. Bolland, president of New York-based intermediary Gill & Roeser Inc., said he did not think a revived exchange would work.

“Basically, we're in a very soft market for insurance and reinsurance, and the need for another market would not appear to be apparent,” he said.

Mr. Bolland, who brokered business at the original NYIE for Sten-Re Cole Inc., said one of the problems was high operating costs for participating companies. He said Lloyd's of London also is very expensive but insurers and reinsurers participate because it offers distinct advantages, such as large amounts of capital, a diverse breadth of products, the prestige of the institution, a high credit rating, and wide licensing for participants. The NYIE did not have those advantages, he said.

Mr. Bolland said changes since the 1980s have made the exchange and its relatively small syndicates less viable. Reinsurers now need about $1 billion in surplus capital to be widely accepted, and a startup exchange would not attract that level of capital, he said.

Since Mr. Dinallo first floated the idea in early 2008, the insurance industry and global economy have been hit by the credit crisis and the global financial crisis. But Mr. Gaul of the Insurance Department said such events have made industry, government officials and policyholders, in many cases, more interested in financial exchanges.

“If anything, I think the type of transparency and capital requirements that an exchange could put into place for large commercial risks and reinsurance would probably be viewed as a positive in light of everything that has happened over the last couple years,” Mr. Gaul said.