APRA disqualifies ex-ZFS officer

SYDNEY, Australia— The Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority has disqualified Robert Stevenson, a former group reinsurance officer at Zurich Re, from being or acting as the director of senior manager of a general insurer.

Mr. Stevenson was group reinsurance officer at Zurich Re, a unit of Zurich Financial Services Group, from 1999 to 2001.

APRA said that Mr. Stevenson played a role in facilitating and structuring a reinsurance deal between Zurich Australia Insurance Ltd. and General & Cologne Re Group Australia that resulted in ZAIL's profits for 2000 being overstated.

APRA determined that Mr. Stevenson knowingly facilitated the transaction and "in doing so enabled ZAIL to deceive its auditors, APRA and Standard & Poor's Corp. as to the true nature and effect of the transaction."