Benfield has further strengthened it global facultative solutions team following mass resignations last year with the appointment of Honor Jones and James Lyndon-Stanford.

Jones and Lyndon-Stanford will be based in London and will join the reinsurance broker in May and July 2007 respectively.

“These new appointments demonstrate our commitment to offering market leading facultative services,” said Dominic Christian, chief executive of Benfield's international division.

“Honor's and James' extensive experience will further enhance the breadth and depth of our existing property and energy facultative capabilities. We look forward to sharing their knowledge of the marketplace with our customers.”

Jones has joined from the North American property team at Aon, while Lyndon-Stanford was formerly divisional director at HSBC Insurance Brokers.

Their appointments follow the departure of 20 senior members from Benfield's facultative team in October 2006.

This included head of the company's global facultative solutions team Elliot Richardson, who defected to Aon.

Benfield warned at the time that as a result of the mass resignations, which industry sources suggested was more than 50, that profits could fall by as much as £10m.