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Concept
Swiss Re
Summary
Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd, commonly known as Swiss Re, is a reinsurance company based in Zürich, Switzerland. It is one of the world's largest reinsurers, as measured by net premiums written. Swiss Re operates through offices in more than 25 countries and was ranked 118th in Forbes Global 2000 leading companies list in 2016. It was also ranked 313th on the Fortune Global 500 in 2015.
On 10–11 May 1861, more than 500 houses went up in flames in the town of Glarus, Switzerland. Two-thirds of the town was reduced to rubble and ashes and around 3,000 inhabitants were made homeless. The damage to Glarus exceeded the reserves of the cantonal fire insurance, which had underinsured many cantonal buildings: the resulting loss was covered by donations, as well as a bond issues by the cantonal government. Similar to the fire of Hamburg in 1842, which led to the foundation of the first professional reinsurers in Germany, the fire of Glarus made Swiss insurers demand more reinsurance coverage against catastrophic loss. As a result, Swiss Re was founded in Zurich as the first Swiss reinsurance company in 1863.
Swiss Re was a lead insurer of the World Trade Center at the time of the September 11 attacks, which led to an insurance dispute with the owner, Silverstein Properties. In October 2006, the New York appeals court ruled in favor of Swiss Re, stating that the destruction of the twin towers was a single event rather than two, limiting coverage to 2.6 billion as a part of Swiss Re's equity capital raise after Swiss Re lost 6 billion francs in its financial market operations in the Global Financial Crisis. Berkshire Hathaway already owns a 3% stake, with rights to own more than 20%.
In May 2016, the Fort McMurray Canadian wildfires caused estimated damages of up to CAD10 billion, with Swiss Re having the most exposure among reinsurers.
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