Zurich Insurance Group

Zurich Insurance Group Ltd. is a Swiss insurance company, commonly known as Zurich, headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company is Switzerland's largest insurer.[2] As of 2020, the group is the world's 117th largest public company according to Forbes' Global 2000s list,[3] and in 2011 it ranked 94th in Interbrand's top 100 brands.[4]

Zurich Insurance Group Ltd.
TypeAktiengesellschaft
SIX: ZURN
IndustryFinancial services
Founded1872 (1872)
HeadquartersZürich, Switzerland
Key people
Michel Liès, Chairman
Mario Greco, CEO
ProductsLife and non-life insurance, pensions, investments
Revenue US$ 47.18 billion (2018)[1]
Total assets US$ 395.342 billion (2018)[1]
Total equity US$ 31.802 billion (2018)[1]
Number of employees
53,535 (2018)[1]
Websitewww.zurich.com

Zurich is a global insurance company which is organized into three core business segments: General Insurance, Global Life and Farmers. Zurich employs 55,000 people serving customers in 215 countries and territories around the globe.[5] The company is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. As of 2012 it had shareholders' equity of $34.494 billion.[6]

Company history

Zurich Insurance Company (1872–1998)

The company was founded in 1872 as a reinsurance company under the name of "Versicherungs-Verein" and at the request of the "Schweiz" transport insurance company (which was founded in 1869 on the initiative of the "Schweizerischen Kreditanstalt"), a subsidiary of the Schweiz Marine Company. It was founded by people who were also board members of the "Schweiz" transport insurance company.[7]

The business activity began on 1 May 1873. In 1875, accident insurance was added. The company was renamed Transport- und Unfall-Versicherungs-Actiengesellschaft "Zurich". In 1880 Zurich abandoned the marine business following a significant loss.[8]

Through 1894, it acquired licenses to conduct business in Austria, Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the rest of Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Russia, Italy, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein. Due to the change in 1894 from transport insurance to accident and liability insurance, it was renamed "Zurich" "Allgemeine Unfall- und Haftpflicht-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft". Due to legal settlements in the area of workers' compensation, it took a risk and entered the North American market in 1912, starting in the states of New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and Massachusetts in the USA.[8]

In 1915 Zurich acquired its first whole company, "Hispania Compañia General de Seguros" of Barcelona in Spain. Ten years later, in 1922, Zurich founded "Vita Lebensversicherungs-Gesellschaft" as an independent subsidiary, which soon expanded into neighboring countries. In addition, a branch was established in the United Kingdom (the first foreign insurance company to do so). One year later, another branch was established in Canada.[9]

In 1925, Zurich became the official insurer of all new Ford vehicles in Great Britain. The "Zurich Fire Insurance Company of New York" was founded in 1929, the reinsurance company Turegum in 1938 and the "American Guarantee and Liability Company in New York" in 1939.[8]

In 1950 it bought a share in "Companhia de Seguros Metrõpole S.A." of Lisbon. Five years later, in 1955, «Zürich» Allgemeine Unfall- und Haftpflicht-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft was renamed «Zürich» Versicherungs-Gesellschaft, a name it still holds today.[10]

Between 1955 and 1976 several companies were acquired, including the "Commonwealth General Assurance Corporation" of Sydney, "Iguazù Compañia de Seguros S.A." from Buenos Aires, "Empire Fire and Marine Insurance Company" from Nebraska, "Fidelity and Deposit Company" from Maryland, "Universal Underwriters" from Kansas City, "Anglo Americana de Seguros Gerais" from São Paulo, "Minerva Group" from Italy, "Centre Reinsurance Holding" from Bermuda, "La Chilena Consolidada", and "Seguros de Vida" from Chile and "Seguros Chapultepec" from Mexico.[8]

On the initiative of "Vita Lebensversicherungs-Gesellschaft", the first Vita Parcours (fitness trails) in Switzerland were created in 1968 and ZIM (Zurich Investment Management) was founded in 1990 as an investment management partner for redemption funds and institutional investors in Switzerland. As part of a new brand strategy, "Vita" became "Zurich" Life Insurance Company in 1993, operating in the market under the name "Zürich Leben". While the name "Vita" thus disappeared from the market, it lives on in the "Stiftung Vita Parcours", which was outsourced in 1994. In 1994, "Zürich" took over the Zurich private bank "Rüd, Blass & Cie." Due to refocusing on the insurance business, the private bank was sold again in 2003.[10]

In 1996, Zurich acquired 80 percent of "Kemper Corporation" and 97 percent of "Kemper Financial Service" and in 1997 acquired a majority interest in New York-based "Scudder, Stevens & Clark". Subsequently, Kemper was merged with Scudder to form "Scudder Kemper Investments".[11]

Zurich Financial Services (1998–2012)

In September 1998, Zurich and the financial division of British American Tobacco merged to form "Zurich Financial Services". This comprised the Swiss company "Zurich Allied AG",[12] listed on the Swiss Market Index, and the British company "Allied Zurich plc", listed on the FTSE 100 (Dual-listed Company). In 2000, the structure was reorganized under a single holding company under Swiss company law. All old shares were replaced by new shares in the newly formed "Zurich Financial Services" (ZFS) with a first listing on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich and a second listing in London. In 2002, ZFS focused on insurance-related financial products and services. ZFS returned to profitability in 2003, announcing that it had met its targets and posted a profit of US$2.1 billion, compared to a loss of US$3.4 billion a year earlier. Operating income increased 93 percent to $2.3 billion, marking the turnaround. Zurich remained on track in 2004 with net income of US$2.5 billion and operating income of US$3.1 billion, an increase of 36 percent over the previous year. Zurich's net income increased by 30 percent to US$3.2 billion in 2005, and operating income rose by 32 percent to US$3.9 billion. In 2008, "Zurich Financial Services" recorded net income of US$3 billion, compared to a record US$5.7 billion in the previous year.

In July 2011, Zurich announced that it had signed definitive agreements for a long-term alliance with "Banco Santander SA" (Santander) over 25 years in Latin America.[13][14]

Zurich Insurance Group (since 2012)

In April 2012, Zurich Financial Services Ltd changed its name to Zurich Insurance Group Ltd. In a statement, the Group explained the rationale behind the name change. "In recognition of this strategic focus, the reference to financial services in the company name has been replaced by indicating the insurance activity of the Group instead and to specify the purpose accordingly."[15]

In December 2015, the group's CEO Martin Senn (who committed suicide on May 27, 2016) announced his resignation. Despite years of highly profitable business operations, the focus was put on recent events which forced Mr. Senn to step down. Ad-Interim Chairman Tom de Swaan took over as acting CEO.[16]

On 26 January 2016, it was announced that Zurich had poached Mario Greco, CEO of Generali as its next chief executive, and that he would start on 1 May.[17]

Core business segments

General Insurance

Zurich's General Insurance business serves individuals, small and medium-sized businesses and major multinational corporations with motor, home, and commercial products and services.

Global Life

Zurich's Global Life business offers life insurance,[18] savings, investment and pension products. In the United States life insurance is issued by Zurich American Life Insurance Company with offices in Schaumburg, Illinois, Kansas and New York City.[19]

Farmers

Zurich's Farmers segment includes Farmers Management Services, which provides non-claims related management services to the Farmers Exchanges (not owned by Zurich), as well as the Farmers RE business which includes reinsurance assumed from the Farmers Exchange by the Group. Zurich's Farmers Insurance Group is the third largest insurance group in the United States.[20]

MetLife

In December 2020, the Zurich group purchased the property and casualty insurance segment from MetLife for 3.6 billion USD. The purchase, combined with a 10-year cooperation agreement between Farmers and MetLife is financed by Zurich group with 2.43 billion USD while the remaining 1.51 billion USD is contributed by Farmers.[21]

Zurich Ireland

Officially known as Zurich Insurance plc (‘ZIP’), Zurich Ireland is a wholly owned subsidiary of Zurich Insurance Group Ltd. ZIP is an Irish insurance company originally incorporated in 1950 and is Zurich Insurance Group's main legal entity for writing non-life insurance business in Europe. ZIP writes non-life insurance business across the EU through its Irish Head Office and network of branches.[22]

Corporate social responsibility

In 2009, Zurich was awarded Charity Times "Best Insurance Services"[23] and was shortlisted again in 2010. In 2012 the Zurich Community Trust (UK) won the Cross-Sector Partnership of the Year Award for its partnership with the treatment charity Addaction.[24]

According to its website, Zurich Community Trust has donated over £60 million since 1972, with the goal of addressing key social issues. It has supported over 600 charities a year, making a measurable impact on the lives of over 80,000 people.[25] Zurich was one of the first recipients of the Community Mark from Business in the Community which it has successfully retained for three years.[26]

At a group level, the Z Zurich Foundation's mission is to help individuals and communities understand and manage risk, leveraging Zurich's core strengths as an insurer. Zurich is achieving this aim by working with long-term partnership with select non-profit organizations such as Practical Action, the Rainforest Alliance, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.[27]

On 24 October 2002, Zurich North America hosted a ceremony at the 9/11 Tribute Center honoring the winners of its 2012 K.A.M.P. awards, a program created as a living legacy to the four employees killed on 9/11: John Keohane, Peggy Alario, Kathy Moran and Ludwig Picarro.[28]

Zurich began a relationship with SBP, a disaster relief organization based in New Orleans, at its Zurich Classic golf tournament in New Orleans.[29] Over the next five years, more than 1,000 Zurich employees, customers, brokers, and distributors volunteered with SBP to rebuild homes in New Orleans, Staten Island and Joplin, until in April 2014, the company announced that its Z Zurich Foundation would give SBP a $3 million grant over three years.[29] The grant would go towards creating a Disaster Resilience and Recovery Lab—a disaster relief model that propagates best practices learned in New Orleans after Katrina to communities affected by future disasters.[29]

In 2011, Zurich launched a free online resource – My Community Starter – designed to make getting involved in community activities more simple.[30]

In March 2012, Zurich reinforced its commitment to the Z Zurich foundation by making a substantial investment of $100 million.[31]

In March 2013, Zurich announced its global flood resilience program, which aims to enhance community flood resilience by finding innovative ways to increase the impact of disaster risk reduction efforts at community, national and global levels. The first country program is taking place in Mexico and Indonesia. To maximize the community impact of the program, Zurich has formed a strategic alliance with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).[32]

Financial performance and information
Zurich offices in Madrid, Spain.

Zurich Insurance Group Ltd ("Zurich") is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the ticker ZURN. As of 1 December 2012 there were 148,300,123 fully paid registered shares[6] and 124,847 shareholders.[33] 24.7% of the holding of the registered shares were private individuals (15.3% of all outstanding shares), 7.2% were foundations and pension funds (4.5% of all outstanding shares) and 68.1% were other legal entities (42.3% of all outstanding shares).[33]

Controversy

In 2006, Zurich Financial Services settled a $171 million case relating to bid rigging and price fixing in the United States.[34] "Businesses shopping for commercial insurance were deceived into believing they were getting the best deals available," said Abbott. "The whole anti-competitive scheme was an intentional smoke screen by several insurance players to artificially inflate premiums and pay improper commissions to those who brokered the deals." The states included in the settlement were Texas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Zurich is also required to pay about $122 million[35] in refunds to commercial policyholders in a New Jersey class action lawsuit[36] settlement. Zurich Financial Services settled a bid-rigging and improper "finite reinsurance" transactions probe.[37] Zurich Financial agreed to pay $153 million in restitution and penalties and agreed to a series of reforms. Zurich apologized and acknowledged that "certain of its employees violated both acceptable business practices and Zurich's own standards of conduct by engaging in improper bidding practices and the ‘finite reinsurance’ transactions described in the Assurance of Discontinuance". The states included in the settlement were New York, Connecticut and Illinois.

In May 2007, Zurich Capital Markets, a subsidiary of Zurich Financial Services, paid $16.8 million to settle with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission for helping four hedge funds disguise their identities to avoid detection when making frequent trades in mutual fund shares.[38] An SEC director stated, "By knowingly financing their hedge funds clients' deceptive market timing, ZCM reaped substantial fees at the expense of long-term mutual-fund shareholders"[39]

In 2015, small business owners and property developers in Britain complained that Zurich's British subsidiary, Dunbar Bank, had treated them unfairly by calling in loans quickly in order to wind down its loan book after the parent company pulled out of the specialist UK property market in 2010. They claimed that 71 Dunbar borrowers had been made bankrupt in the following five-year period, many more than by any of Britain's very much larger high street banks.[40] One Dunbar customer wrote: "Dunbar’s latest set of accounts show that over 95% of its loan book is now classified as impaired or overdue […] the equivalent figure for UK Asset Resolution, the country’s bad bank, is just 37%".[41]

In 2019, the local branch of Zurich Insurance Group was one of four insurance companies fined by Portugal's competition authority AdC for “cartel practices” regarding workplace accident, health and auto insurance.[42]

References
  1. "Annual Report 2018". Zurich.
  2. "Zurich Says Board Will Propose Ackermann as Chairman", Bloomberg.com, 13 March 2012; accessed 27 April 2014.
  3. "The World's Biggest Public Companies" Forbes.com; retrieved 07 March 2020.
  4. "Best Global Brands 2011" Archived 26 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Interbrand; retrieved 25 April 2012.
  5. "About us" Archived 21 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Zurich.com; retrieved 25 April 2012. Employees and countries served updated 2020 https://www.zurich.com/en/about-us/a-global-insurer
  6. ZIG profile Archived 6 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, zurich.com; accessed 27 April 2014.
  7. "Aktuelle Zahlen und Daten". Zurich Insurance Group. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  8. "History and heritage: Zurich milestones". Zurich Insurance Group. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  9. "Krankenversicherungen in Spanien". Super Spanisch. 20 October 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  10. "Meilensteine der Zürich-Geschichte" (PDF). Zurich Insurance Group. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 January 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  11. "3. Zurich Financial Services". Insurance Times. 1999. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  12. "Zurich Allied AG". Bloomberg. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  13. "Zurich Financial Buys Majority Stake in Santander Insurance Unit". DealB%k. 22 February 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  14. "Zurich in $1.67 Billion Deal with Santander for Latin American Distribution". Insurance Journal. 22 February 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  15. "Zurich name change completed", InsuranceDaily.co.uk, 4 April 2012; accessed 27 April 2014.
  16. JeffVogeli, Jan-Henrik Foerster JanFoe Jeffrey Voegeli. "Zurich Insurance CEO Senn Steps Down After Recent `Setbacks'". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  17. Arosio, Paola (24 January 2013). "Zurich Insurance poaches Generali chief Mario Greco". Reuters. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  18. "Investors' Day – Focus on Execution" (PDF). Zurich.com. p. 34. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 March 2012. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  19. Zurich in North America – History. Zurichna.com (7 May 2013). Retrieved on 4 September 2013.
  20. "About Farmers." Farmers.com. Retrieved 25 April 2012
  21. "Milliarden-Deal der Zurich in den USA" (in German). Basler Zeitung (Wirtschaft). Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  22. "About Us | Zurich Ireland". www.zurich.ie. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
  23. "2009: The Winners", Charity Times.com; accessed 27 April 2014.
  24. Charity Times Hall of Fame Archived 20 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine; accessed 27 April 2014.
  25. "Zurich Community Trust" Archived 11 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine; accessed 27 April 2014.
  26. "Business in the Community, Zurich Financial Services Ltd, the insurance-based financial services provider, has successfully retained the CommunityMark for a further three years", bitc.org.uk; retrieved 25 April 2012.
  27. ""Z Zurich Foundation, Annual Report 2010"" (PDF). Zurich.com. p. 1. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  28. "Zurich North America Honors 2012 K.A.M.P. Award Winners". 3BL Media. 9 November 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  29. "Zurich and St. Bernard Project Use Lessons Learned Post Hurricane Katrina To Help Communities Across America". Insurance Broadcasting: 1. 25 April 2014.
  30. "Fear factor holding back community volunteering", TheGuardian.co.uk; retrieved 25 April 2012.
  31. "Zurich invests USD 100 million into the Z Zurich Foundation and provides further evidence for the increasing social and economic role of insurance", 4-traders.com, 22 March 2012; accessed 27 April 2014.
  32. IFRC Archived 18 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine; zurich.com; accessed 27 April 2014.
  33. "Shareholders information" Archived 6 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Zurich.com; accessed 27 April 2014.
  34. Zurich, 9 States Settle Bid-Rigging Case for $171 Million: "Texas and eight other states have reached a $171 million settlement with Zurich American Insurance Co. relating to bid-rigging and price-fixing in the commercial insurance market."
  35. Zurich American Implements Reforms, Pays Consumers Millions Archived 23 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  36. Insurance Brokerage Antitrust Litigation Zurich Settlement Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine: "This website provides general information on the Zurich class action settlement ."
  37. Zurich Settles Bid-Rigging Probe Archived 10 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine: "Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and State Insurance Department Superintendent Howard Mills today announced an agreement with one of the world’s largest insurance companies to resolve allegations of bid-rigging and improper "finite reinsurance" transactions."
  38. Zurich Financial Settles US Market Timing Case: "In order to buy, exchange and redeem shares in these mutual funds, these hedge funds employed deceptive techniques designed to avoid detection by these mutual funds. ZCM came to learn that the hedge funds were utilizing deceptive practices to market-time mutual funds, and nonetheless ZCM provided financing to them and took administrative steps that substantially assisted them", the SEC said.
  39. Zurich Financial Pays $16.8 Million in SEC Fund Probe: "Zurich Capital Markets, a U.S. subsidiary, helped four hedge funds disguise their identities to avoid detection when making frequent trades in mutual-fund shares, a practice called market timing, the SEC said in statement today."
  40. Hurley, James (30 March 2015). "Dunbar faces challenge over 'bankruptcy' policy". The Times. London. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  41. "Done over by Dunbar". Private Eye. London. 15 May 2015. p. 31.
  42. Catarina Demony (August 1, 2019), Portugal competition watchdog fines insurers over cartel practices Reuters.
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