US insurance leader Bill Berkley says the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is an "honest regulator" which uses "rules modified by judgement".

Mr Berkley, founder and Chairman of global insurer WR Berkley, says in an interview in the latest issue of Insurance & Risk Professional magazine he was initially concerned about the amount of power APRA has when he set up his insurance and reinsurance operations in Australia. "But our experience with them was they... don't abuse it at all," he said. "They use their power to be sure they're confident you're doing the right thing.

"Once they're confident you're doing the right thing, they're very reasonable and fine to deal with."

Mr Berkley, who is also President of the American Insurance Association, which represents the major US insurance companies, says it would be difficult to adopt the "judgemental" APRA model in the US.

"What's wonderful about APRA is that people actually use judgement and commonsense," he said in an exclusive interview during a brief visit to Sydney last month. "The US wants to run by absolute rules, whereas APRA uses rules modified by judgement. It makes it much easier to deal with."

Insurance & Risk Professional is being mailed out to subscribers this week.