World Insurance Companies         

People want to feel safe and protected. We want to feel that someone big and strong is on our side, backing our steps. Especially when talking about finance.
Dealing with a big company can give us the sense of satisfaction. This doesn’t always have to be the right choice – small companies can sometimes better partners than big international players. However, it’s good to know who the leaders in the field of our interest are.
In times of mergers, absorbs and split-offs it’s not always easy to keep track of the top players. That’s why we would like to present the Top 10 World Insurance Companies.

Position	Global position (all industries)	Company	Country	Sales (USD bil.)	Profits (USD bil.)	Assets (USD bil.)	Market value (USD bil.)
1	9	ING Group	Netherlands	197.93	12.65	1932.15	75.78
2	14	Allianz	Germany	139.12	10.9	1547.48	80.3
3	18	AIG Group	USA	110.06	6.2	1060.51	118.2
4	20	AXA Group	France	151.7	7.75	1064.67	70.33
5	62	Generali Group	Italy	102.16	3.17	486.43	60.79
6	65	Zurich Financial Services	Switzerland	55.05	5.63	387.67	45.76
7	70	Munich Re	Germany	67.57	5.63	306.03	37.34
8	73	MetLife	USA	53.01	4.32	558.56	41.32
9	91	Manulife Financial	Canada	33.08	4.01	178.58	59.18
10	101	Aviva	United Kingdom	81.83	2.65	633.91	31.9

Among some other top lists we used Forbes Global 2000 special report as a source, because it provides the best comparison, based not only on a single indicator, but it uses combination of four different characteristics: sales, profits, assets and market value. This allows the final list to be more complex and representative. All figures are the latest available.

Posted by Hamza HAsnain

Aviva

We end our Top Ten list with the only representant of the United Kingdom - the biggest local one, Aviva.

This company emerged as a result of several merges of UK insurance companies. It boasts more than 300 years old history, thanks to Hand-in-Hand, world's oldest existing fire insurance office at that time, which was absorbed by the CGU (this formed CGNU in 2000 and was finally renamed in 2002 to Aviva).
Aviva is present in 27 countries (predominantly in France and Netherlands), where its 57,000 employees are serving 45 millions customers. Their main activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance. Premium income and investment sales reached of £49.2 billion and £364 billion of funds under management.

Manulife Financial

The third North American on our list is Manulife Financial Corporation (or The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company) from Canada, where they are positioned number one in insurance and the second largest company overall (according to Forbes).
With its headquarters in Toronto, it operates in 19 countries, especially in the USA, where its subsidiary, John Hancock Insurance is one of the key players on the market.
Manulife was founded in 1897 by Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first Prime
Minister. Manulife’s portfolio includes life insurance, pensions, mutual funds, annuities, group benefits, and long-term care and its 8.7 million insureds are served by more than 20,000 employees (47,000 including agents).

MetLife

MetLife (Metropolitan Life Insurance Company) is the biggest insurer on the US market, with more than $2 trillion worth of life insurance in force.
It was founded by a group of New York businessmen as National Union Life and Limb Insurance Company during the Civil War (in 1863) to provide insurance for soldiers. It's still focused especially on the US market, but has opened subsidiaries in 14 other countries and continues expansion to reach a goal of 100 million clients in 2010.
It does not only offer insurance, but also banking, fee-based financial planning, retirement planning and wealth management. MetLife has a long term agreement with the owners of Snoopy and other Peanuts characters and is broadly using them in its marketing. It has headquarters in MetLife (ex Pan Am) building, one of the most inconsistent buildings in New York.

Munich Re

Munich Re (Munich Reinsurance Company, or in German Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft) is the world's biggest reinsurance company. Reinsurers function as risk managers, assuming part of the risk covered by primary insurers. However, it also provides primary insurance, especially in Germany, where it it's on #2 position on the market.
Munich Re is offering insurance to 5,000 insurance companies in 150 countries of the world. Primary care is provided by their ERGO Insurance Group in 23 countries. It was founded in 1880 by Carl Thieme (the same man who founded Allianz) and became known after the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, having handled many expensive but successful claims. Munich Re was one of the main insurers of WTC.

Zurich Financial Services

Switzerland has been the center of financial world for centuries, so an insurance company from this country cannot be absent from the top ten list.
Zurich Financial Services (or simply Zurich) was founded in 1872 and in just three years it was licensed to provide insurance service in five other countries. They were the first continental insurance company active in the USA. Today Zurich operates in 170 countries, employing more than 60,000 people.
It's reputation suffered after Zurich Financial Services settled a $171 million case relating to bid rigging and price fixing in the USA in 2006. However, results of 2007 were positive and now the company's goal is to reach world's top 5. In Forbes' chart they are at position #6.

Generali Group

Based in Trieste, Assicurazioni Generali is the largest Italian insurance company. Founded in 1831 in the key seaport of the Austro-Hungarian Empire where some 20 insurance companies were active, Generali soon began to outperform them.
With a strong international presence, Generali offers its services in 40 countries, expanding to Central and Eastern European markets and the Far East. Also dealing with finance and real estate services, it serves 46 million clients and employs 67,000 people. Beside other activities, the group is determined to be one of the leaders in social responsibility.
The name "Generali" was chosen to promote the idea of not being aimed just at maritime insurance. St. Mark's lion was picked as a symbol some years later.

AXA Group

This is the name of insurance companies independently organized under the AXA Group, with headquarters in Paris.
Due to this fact, it's difficult to trace their individual histories. We can mention Ancienne Mutuelle, an insurance company based in France, as a leading force from 1958, however, the pivotal year was 1985, when AXA Group was formed from Mutuelles Unies/Drouotthe.
The name "AXA" was chosen after a long discussion and actually doesn't mean anything - it's just an easy to pronounce international word.
AXA is active in approximately 80 countries, with 174,935 employees worldwide (63% in Europe). The AXA Group of companies are engaged primarily in insurance, as well as investment management. It's symbol is the Switch, which is the red diagonal line in the AXA logo.

AIG is now BMO:American International Group (AIG

AIG, the third of the three biggest competitors, dates its roots back to 1919, when Cornelius Vander Starr formed the American Asiatic Underwriters insurance company in Shanghai. Soon, he spread his activities to USA and after successful survival of the Second World War, his business continued to grow.
After a wave of acquisitions in the sixties, in 1967 AIG was formed to become the holding company for the portfolio of a number of various companies. In 1991, AIG completed a $23 billion purchase of American General Corporation - in one of the largest insurance takeovers ever. The company survived the $820 million loss due to September 11 and remains among the world insurance leaders.
AIG is active in more than 130 countries and has 107,000 employees. AIG's common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, as well as the stock exchanges in Tokyo and Ireland, and it is one of the components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It has around 25 principal subsidiaries and among a great variety of insurance policies it also offers financial services like mutual funds, retirement services, banking and loans. It owns the world's largest aircraft leasing company, ILFC. Recently, AIG suffered from the mortgage crisis in the USA, this resulted in a CEO change in June 2008. The new Chief Executive Officer is Robert B. Willumstad.

Allianz

The silver medal goes to the German Allianz, the 14th biggest company in the world. It bears it's name since 1890, when the Allianz Versicherungs-Aktien-Gesellschaft was founded by Carl Thieme and Wilhelm Finck.
At the end of the 19th Century, its first international office in London was opened and within 20 years, Allianz became by far the biggest insurer in Germany. The company's reputation suffered during WWII because of its connections with Nazis, however, Allianz survived the war.
It regained its strong position at the home market, thanks to their innovative attitude (it has widely been using computers since early 50's). From the beginning of the 1970s, the company started to expand and has continued its efforts till nowadays.
It has more than 80 million customers in about 70 countries, and 181,124 employees worldwide (40% of them in Germany). Structured as a holding of approximately 700 companies, Allianz operates in three core business areas: property and casualty insurance, life and health insurance, and asset management and banking.

ING Group

Internationale Nederlanden Groep (ING), the biggest insurance company in the world and the 9th biggest company including all industries, was founded in 1991 in a merger between Nationale-Nederlanden and NMB Postbank Group. However, it's family tree can be traced back to year 1743 and the Kooger Doodenbos from Koog.\

ING is an international company, especially after a number of acquisitions in late nineties and beginning of the 21st Century in Belgium (Banque Bruxelles Lambert), Germany (BHF-Bank), Canada (Allianz Canada) and many other countries.
Today, ING is present in more than 50 countries, with workforce of 120,000 people, most of them working in Europe, and more than 75 million customers. The ordinary shares are listed on the exchanges of Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, Paris, New York (NYSE) and the Swiss exchanges. Michel Tilmant has been ING's CEO for more than four years now.
The famous lion logo, symbol of ING, emerges from traditional dutch coat of arms.

World Insurance Companies

People want to feel safe and protected. We want to feel that someone big and strong is on our side, backing our steps. Especially when talking about finance.
Dealing with a big company can give us the sense of satisfaction. This doesn’t always have to be the right choice – small companies can sometimes better partners than big international players. However, it’s good to know who the leaders in the field of our interest are.
In times of mergers, absorbs and split-offs it’s not always easy to keep track of the top players. That’s why we would like to present the Top 10 World Insurance Companies.

Position	Global position (all industries)	Company	Country	Sales (USD bil.)	Profits (USD bil.)	Assets (USD bil.)	Market value (USD bil.)
1	9	ING Group	Netherlands	197.93	12.65	1932.15	75.78
2	14	Allianz	Germany	139.12	10.9	1547.48	80.3
3	18	AIG Group	USA	110.06	6.2	1060.51	118.2
4	20	AXA Group	France	151.7	7.75	1064.67	70.33
5	62	Generali Group	Italy	102.16	3.17	486.43	60.79
6	65	Zurich Financial Services	Switzerland	55.05	5.63	387.67	45.76
7	70	Munich Re	Germany	67.57	5.63	306.03	37.34
8	73	MetLife	USA	53.01	4.32	558.56	41.32
9	91	Manulife Financial	Canada	33.08	4.01	178.58	59.18
10	101	Aviva	United Kingdom	81.83	2.65	633.91	31.9

Among some other top lists we used Forbes Global 2000 special report as a source, because it provides the best comparison, based not only on a single indicator, but it uses combination of four different characteristics: sales, profits, assets and market value. This allows the final list to be more complex and representative. All figures are the latest available.

Posted by Hamza HAsnain

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