A marine insurance syndicate that specialises in hull insurance to the exclusion of other forms of insurance.

Structural framework of a vessel, aircraft, hovercraft or boat, or anything that floats or moves. Permanently moored floating devices (except offshore structures for oil production) such as floating lighthouses, buoys and markers are not normally insured in the marine hull market. ‘Hull’ originally meant insurance on the ship and its masts but not the machinery, ship’s stores, nets, ropes, equipment and bunkers. The policy now covers hull and machinery including disbursements and a running down clause. Risk factors in marine insurance include: year of construction; type (tanker, tug, etc); tonnage; construction; flag; trade; trading limits (coastal, ocean going); propulsion; socio-economic environment. Ships are normally insured for yearly periods under the Institute Time Clauses or the International Hull Clauses.

Method to reduce the work and expense in preparing reinsurance treaty accounts. It obviates the preparation of separate accounts each showing the reinsurer’s individual proportion of premiums and losses. Instead a statement shows the hundred per cent treaty amounts of every item on the account with a copy submitted to each reinsurer with only its proportion of the final balance shown thereon. See CLEAN CUT BASIS.