The Reinsurance Business
"Reinsurance is insurance for insurance companies". Technically speaking, this explanation of our business may not be entirely correct, but it is readily understandable. Due to the risk of major loss events imposing a burden which no single company can bear, insurance companies very soon felt a need for "re"-insurance. The oldest known reinsurance treaties date back to the fourteenth century.
The international reinsurance sector has since developed into a highly specialised financial service. Major individual risks and natural catastrophe risks are "atomised" across the globe so as to minimise the potential loss for a single company; new insurance companies are provided with support during the cost-intensive start-up phase; in addition, the goal pursued by insurance companies (especially those listed on the stock exchange) of ensuring balance sheet continuity is achieved, in part, by means of reinsurance.
Through the provision of such highly sophisticated services - the specifics of which are frequently extremely complex - Hannover Re has developed into one of the largest reinsurance groups in the world within just 30 years.
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