BRADENTON, Fla. — Florida's Citizens Property Insurance Corp.'s chief financial officer, Sharon Binnun, submitted her resignation effective July 5, the state-run nonprofit insurer announced Monday.
Binnun has accepted a position in the private sector with a Florida-based insurance company. The name of the company, and her new position, were not released.
"Sharon's well-earned reputation within the international financial world as an ethical, knowledgeable, and honest representative has been instrumental in helping to establish Citizens as a global leader in risk transfer," said Citizens President and Chief Executive Officer Barry Gilway. "There truly can be no doubt that no one has made a more significant or beneficial contribution to Citizens or the Florida insurance market."
In recent years, the CPIC has conducted nationwide searches for executive employees. Gilway did not say when the agency would begin the search for a new CFO. The board overseeing Citizens meets June 26.
Though Citizens is a tax-exempt corporation, in the last two years the agency has established a taxable catastrophe bond program to transfer hurricane exposure to the international reinsurance markets using a capital markets instrument instead of using municipal bond financing.
Binnun helped establish the program last year, which closed on the largest single catastrophe bond deal and transferred $750 million of risk to the capital market. The cat bonds were sold by Everglades Re Ltd., an incorporated Bermuda-based company licensed as a special purpose insurer to raise reinsurance for Citizens. Citizens transferred another $250 million of risk through Everglades Re earlier this year.
Binnun also oversees the agency's $871.5 million of outstanding traditional tax exempt municipal bonds. They are rated A-plus by Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's, and A2 by Moody's Investors Service.
A certified public accountant, Binnun became Citizens CFO in early 2007. Before that she had been a deputy commissioner with the state Office of Insurance Regulation for two years.
The CPIC was created in 2002 by the Legislature to offer property insurance to homeowners who could not get coverage in the private market. While envisioned as an agency of last resort, Citizens has become the largest insurer in the Sunshine state.
