Officials associated with the project said they believed it could eventually generate 2,000 to 3,000 jobs, both for market participants and regulators. The exchange would be regulated by the state. It is unrelated to the Obama administration’s proposals to allow uninsured individuals to buy health coverage through exchanges.

The New York insurance superintendent, James J. Wrynn, said it would be easier for New York to create an insurance exchange than for most other states because it tried to start such an exchange in the 1980s. That attempt failed, but the laws allowing it are still on the books, Mr. Wrynn said.

He said the 1980s effort was doomed because the companies participating were not required to have adequate capital and did not always understand the risks they were taking on. The market was also “soft” then, meaning the participating insurers had a hard time charging large enough premiums to both cover their risks and turn a profit.

Mr. Wrynn said New York had been studying what went wrong with the earlier exchange and would see to it that the mistakes were not repeated. He said the state was about to start working with people from various financial institutions in the private sector to draft the rules and procedures for the exchange. Members of the working groups are to be named on Thursday.

Another crucial difference between the 1980s and now is the rise of hedge funds and other unconventional financial companies, which might want to try insuring catastrophic risks to balance investment portfolios. Such investors would participate directly in insurance syndicates, underwriting risks without having to become licensed insurers.