US energy company Enron has filed for bankruptcy and Chapter 11 protection with US courts.
The move is an attempt to protect itself from its creditors and to allow it to continue to support its employees, vendors, trading partners, customers and other constituents.
The bankruptcy of Enron could expose the energy, banking, insurance, shipping and financial services industries to billions of dollars of losses.
The risks to non-energy companies include secondary exposure to credit derivatives, to companies that traded with Enron, and to claims on insurance policies held by the energy trader's directors, officers and auditor.
The Financial Times reports that most of the insurance losses from Enron's collapse will be from surety bond exposure.
Surety bonds are sold to companies and pay out if contractors do not finish projects on time. They can be used to guarantee other types of financial contracts.
Chubb, the US insurer, said on Friday it had a maximum of $220m (£154.3m) in pre-tax exposure to surety bonds.
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