| Type | Aktiengesellschaft |
|---|---|
| Traded as | SIX: ZURN |
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 1872 |
| Headquarters | Zurich, Switzerland |
| Key people | Martin Senn (CEO), Manfred Gentz (Chairman), Dieter Wemmer (CFO) |
| Products | Life and non-life insurance, pensions, investments |
| Revenue | US $67.85 billion (2010)[1] |
| Profit | US $3.434 billion (2010)[1] |
| Total assets | US $375.7 billion (end 2010)[1] |
| Total equity | US $33.32 billion (end 2010)[1] |
| Employees | 54,930 (FTE, 2010)[1] |
| Website | www.zurich.com |
Zurich Financial Services AG (SIX: ZURN) is a major financial services group based in Zurich, Switzerland.
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The Company was founded in 1872 as subsidiary of the Schweiz Marine Insurance Company under the name Versicherung Verein (Insurance Club).[2] The Company changed its name to Zurich Marine and Accident Insurance in 1875[2] and to Zurich General Accident and Liability Insurance in 1894.[2] In 1982 the Company acquired Altstadt Compagnie d'Assurances SA in Switzerland.[3] In 1998 the Company acquired British American Financial Services, a business owned by BAT Industries comprising Eagle Star (acquired in 1984), Allied Dunbar (acquired in 1985) and the Farmers Group, Inc. (acquired in 1988), for $18.6 billion.[4]
In 2000 the structure of business, which had previously involved dual holding companies (Allied Zurich plc in the UK and Zurich Allied AG in Switzerland), was unified to form one holding company - Zurich Financial Services.[5]
In 2008, Zurich launched its biggest global campaign, and while some of the messaging is about the health of the company's balance sheet (when it recovered, it focused on its core business and avoided risky growth strategies), the effort was developed mainly to assuage consumers' mistrust of the insurance companies in general.
In June 2010 Zurich announced it is creating 240 jobs in Ireland, according to Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O'Keeffe TD.[6]
In July 2011 Zurich Financial Services Group (Zurich) announced that it signed definitive agreements with Banco Santander SA (Santander) to enter into a long-term alliance of 25 years in Latin America.
The Zurich Financial Services Group is a leading supplier of Insurance and Risk Management, specialising in both Life and General Insurance.
The organisation is split into 3 business segments:
and 3 operating regions:
| Segment/Region | Europe & Africa | Asia Pacific Middle East | Americas | |
| Group | Martin Senn | Dieter Wemmer | Geoff Riddell | Paul Hopkins |
| General Insurance | Mario Greco | Markus Hongler | n/a | Mike Foley |
| Global Life | Kevin Hogan | David Sims | Dan Bardin | David Dietz & Jose Orlando |
| Farmers | Paul Hopkins | n/a | n/a | Paul Hopkins |
General Insurance serves individuals, small and medium-sized businesses, commercial enterprises and major multinational corporations.
General Insurance is the largest segment. Within General Insurance, individual business areas focus on specific segments and markets where they see opportunities for sustained and profitable growth.
It is split into a number of divisions:
The Farmers Insurance Group of Companies is a personal lines property and casualty insurance group providing homeowners insurance, auto insurance, life insurance, and financial services in the United States. It is the third largest insurance group in the US servicing over 10 million households in 41 states. Farmers Group Inc. is headquartered in Los Angeles, California but is 100% owned by Zurich Financial Services based in Zurich, Switzerland.
Zurich manages its business within 3 geographical areas:
Besides its home market Switzerland, Zurich's key markets in Europe are Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
Zurich has major offices in many of the major financial cities in these countries including, London, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Dublin, Frankfurt, Rome, Milan and the headquarters in Zurich.
In 1912, Zurich became the first foreign insurer to enter the US market.
The US consumer market is served primarily by Farmers Insurance Group the third largest personal lines property & casualty insurance group in America. Founded in 1928, the Farmers Exchanges and their subsidiaries, which are Zurich managed but not Zurich owned, operate in 41 states through a network of 17,000 exclusive agents and 1,100 independent agents.
The Chicago area-based Zurich American Insurance Company is the third largest provider of commercial property-casualty insurance in North America, serving small business, mid-size markets and large corporate customers. In 2005, Zurich Commercial produced gross written premiums of USD 12.5 billion.
Other Zurich companies in North America include:
In 2006, Zurich Financial Services settled a $171 million case relating to bid rigging and price fixing.[7] "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[8] in refunds to commercial policyholders in a New Jersey class action lawsuit[9] settlement.
Zurich Financial Services settled a bid-rigging and improper "finite reinsurance" transactions probe.[10] 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.[11] 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"[12]
On May 5, 2008 Zurich announced a further 900 job losses in the general insurance sector of their UK operation.[13]
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