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Zurich Financial Services AG (SIX: ZURN) is a major financial services group based in Zurich, Switzerland.  Type |
Aktiengesellschaft (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) | Profit |
US $3.434 billion (2010) | Total assets |
US $375.7 billion (end 2010) | Total equity |
US $33.32 billion (end 2010) | Employees |
54,930 (FTE, 2010) | Website |
www.zurich.com |
World Wide Operations and Territories 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 North America 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 North America 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. "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 in refunds to commercial policyholders in a New Jersey class action lawsuit settlement. Zurich Financial Services settled a bid-rigging and improper "finite reinsurance" transactions probe. 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. 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" On May 5, 2008 Zurich announced a further 900 job losses in the general insurance sector of their UK operation. |
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