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Information About

Swiss Re




  Company Type Aktiengesellschaft
  Foundation December 19 , 1863
  Location Zurich, Switzerland
  Industry Reinsurance
  Revenue 40,266,000,000 CHF (2006)
  Net Income 4,560,000,000 CHF (2006)
  Num Employees 10,891 (2006)
  Homepage http://wwwswissrecom/


- at 180 m, Swiss Re's London headquarters is the 6th tallest building in London]]

Swiss Re is the world’s largest Reinsurer , now that it has acquired GE Insurance Solutions . Founded in 1863, Swiss Re now operates in more than 30 countries. General Electric owns 8.9% of the firm.


HISTORY

Swiss Re was founded December 19 , 1863 by the Helvetia General Insurance Company in St. Gallen , the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt ( Credit Suisse ) in Zurich and the Basler Handelsbank in Basel .


CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS

Swiss Re is headquartered in Zurich where the parent company’s main premises has stood on the shores of Lake Zurich since 1864 .

Americas Headquarters

The Americas headquarters of Swiss Re are located in Armonk, New York on a 127-acre (52 hectares) site overlooking Westchester County ’s Kensico Reservoir . The facility, which houses more than 1,000 employees from the company’s Life & Health and Property & Casualty business units, was completed in 1999 and expanded in 2004.

Swiss Re also has offices in New York City, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Fort Wayne, Hartford, and Kansas City.


London Headquarters

Its new London headquarters are located in the award-winning 30 St Mary Axe tower, which opened on May 25 , 2004 . 30 St Mary Axe is London's first environmentally sustainable tall building. Among the building's most distinctive features are its windows, which open to allow natural ventilation to supplement the mechanical systems for a good part of the year.

The landmark London skyscraper, designed by architect Norman Foster and popularly known as 'the gherkin’, was confirmed sold on February 5 , 2007 for over £600 million (US$1.18 billion) to a group formed of IVG Immobilien AG of Germany and Evans Randall of Mayfair .


Subsidiaries


Broker dealer Swiss Re Capital Markets (SRCM), is a Broker-dealer and leading underwriter and developer in the Insurance-linked Securities market. Since 1997 SRCM has underwritten over USD 15 billion of ILS including Insurance-Linked Bonds (ILBs) also known as Catastrophe Bonds (Cat Bonds) for third-party clients and its parent, Swiss Re.

Swiss Re Capital Markets has developed new security types such as earthquake bonds. Swiss Re Capital Markets also developed the parametric index trigger, the ILS shelf program, the first ILS synthetic CDO, and the first extreme mortality bond (linked to life risk)


SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY


Greenhouse Neutrality

Until 2011, Swiss Re supports its employees by refunding them up to 5000 Swiss Francs if they invest into technologies reducing CO2 emissions. Payments depend on the technology, its efficiency and the price of the investment. Examples of such technologies comprise hybrid cars, heat pumps, energy-saving fridges, or better insulated windows. It is widely accepted that CO2 is a major driver of global warming and reducing CO2 emissions will slow down the warming process. Since global warming will result in more frequent and more violent natural disasters the number and amount of indemnification payments will increase as well. The motivation is therefore not pure altruism but also part of Swiss Re's business strategy. Nevertheless, the measure is a real effort to reduce emission of greenhouse gases.


REFERENCES


Works cited

  Url http://wwwftcom/cms/s/e6bb9114-b50c-11db-a5a5-0000779e2340html
  Title Swiss Re confirms £600m Gherkin sale
  Accessdate 2007-02-07
  Date February 5 , 2007
  Publisher Financial Times
  Quote <small>Swiss Re confirmed on Monday that it had sold the distinctive Gherkin building in the City of London for £600m to a joint venture between German property group IVG Immobilien AG and Evans Randall, the Mayfair based private investment group</small>



  Url http://wwwswissrecom/INTERNET/pwswpsprnsf/alldocbyidkeylu/RSCD-6X4KGNOpenDocument
  Title Swiss Re offers CHF 5 000 rebate to each employee committing to reduce her or his personal carbon footprint
  Date January 4 , 2007
  Publisher Swiss Re



  Url http://wwwbloombergcom/apps/newspid=71000001&refer=germany&sid=ataIbxBYbJI8
  Title Swiss Re Completes $74 Billion GE Insurance Purchase (Update2)
  Accessdate 2006-06-27
  Last Ligi
  First Antonio
  Date June 12 , 2006
  Publisher Bloombergcom



  publisher Swiss Re
  date October 30 , 2003
  url http://wwwswissrecom/INTERNET/pwsfilprnsf/vwFilebyIDKEYLu/DDAR-5T2M6L//Pressreleasecarbonneutralpdf
  title Swiss Re implements ten-year programme to become fully greenhouse neutral: a combination of reducing in-house emissions and cooperating with the World Bank
  accessdate 2006-06-27



  publisher Wwwswissinfoorg
  date January 18 , 2007
  Last Rossello
  First Raffaella
  url http://wwwswissinfoorg/ger/dossiers/zwischen_den_welten/detail/Swiss_Re_praemiert_oekologisches_VerhaltenhtmlsiteSect=21261&sid=7431087&cKey=1169113903000
  title Swiss Re prämiert ökologisches Verhalten (German)
  accessdate 2007-08-04




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