The five largest insurance companies in the world

In the UK, we are very familiar with the idea of insurance and most of us come into contact with it regularly, especially as many major insurance companies, such as Norwich Union, spend millions of pounds on TV marketing each year. Read more about Norwich Union.

Thousands upon thousands of people are employed by the insurance industry, most home-owners will have taken out home insurance and the law states that we must have car insurance if we are to drive on the roads. Read more about car insurance in the UK.

Insurance is an important concept in advanced countries across the world. America and Japan are amongst the largest consumers of insurance products, with these two countries alone being responsible for about half of the world's insurance despite having a much smaller percentage of world population.

Despite the UK's car insurance industry being extremely big business, it pales in comparison with largest insurance companies across the world. Even the car insurance company with the largest revenue in the UK, Norwich Union, doesn't feature in the world top five biggest insurance firms. Read about the top 5 UK car insurance companies.

The top 5 largest insurance firms in the world are as follows:

1. American International Group

2. AXA Group

3. Allianz Group

4. MetLife

5. Generali Group

American International Group

The American International Group (AIG) is based in New York City, although it also has a European headquarters in Croydon and an Asian headquarters in Hong Kong. It currently has operations in excess of 130 different countries.

AIG provides a wide range of insurance types, with areas dealing with life insurance and property/casualty insurance for individuals, businesses and institutions. It gained a more corporate focus in the late 1960s, when Maurice R. Greenberg took over its US holdings, and has seen profitable returns as a result.

Considering the name of the company, it is somewhat surprising that AIG started its life in China, rather than the United States. However, it was formed by an American, Cornelius Vanderr Starr, who was the one of the first foreigners to set up an insurance company in China.

The main principle that distinguishes AIG from many other insurance firms, and has perhaps led to its number one placement in the world rankings, is that of underwriting profit. Most companies rely on the investment of their customers' money to make profit, whereas AIG gets profit from its underwriting, and any investment profit comes in on top of that.

AXA Group

The second largest insurance company in the world, the AXA Group has over 110,000 employees and has around $120 billion revenue each year.

It is a French company, which was previously called "Ancienne Mutuelle" and "Mutuelles Unies" before the name AXA Group was chosen for its memorable, easily understandable qualities in 1985.

Its principle areas of business are in Western Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, although it also operates in locations such as the Middle East to a lesser extent. It can be found in a total of 50 countries around the world.

AXA operates a number of companies, which can be broken down to existing in five main areas of business: Life and Savings, Property and Casualty, International Insurance, Asset Management and Other Financial Services. Its effective management has seen all five sectors prove profitable for AXA and it enjoys extremely profitable trading as a result.

Allianz Group

The Allianz Group is based in Munich, Germany and has been extremely successful in the European market since its founding in 1890. When looking at revenue alone, the Allianz Group could be seen as the biggest financial service provider in the world. However, when profit is factored in, it loses this prestigious title.

With revenue of 100.9 billion Euros, the Allianz Group is now considered to be a third largest insurance company worldwide. Although its success in Western, Northern and Southern Europe is particularly noteworthy, it also enjoys being one of the foremost insurance companies farther away in Asia Pacific.

The Allianz Group concentrates on three main areas of business: Property and Casualty Insurance, Life and Health Insurance, and Asset Management and Banking. When the number of customers from each segment is put together, the Allianz Group can be seen to have a customer base of more than 60 million.

MetLife

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, better known as MetLife, is an American company that was founded in 1863. It is based in New York City but also has over 30 other buildings across the United States, as well as another proposed building in Mexico.

It has 70 million customers, spread across the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe. However, MetLife is aiming to have over 100 million by 2010 as a result of their planned aggressive expansion program.

MetLife provides a range of insurance products, including life insurance, car insurance and home insurance, on both individual and corporate levels, as well as some other financial services. Its revenue is more than $44 billion USD, making it the 4th largest insurance company and the 60th largest company in the world.

Generali Group

The Generali Group is owned by parent company Assicurazioni Generali, which operates from Italy. In the past, its focus has been mostly on Western Europe and in this area it has enjoyed remarkable success.

However, there have been some significant changes going on within the Generali Group for the last decade. These changes have seen the company's sphere of influence grow as it tackles the Central and Eastern European markets and sets up business in China for the first time. It is now trading in more than 40 countries around the world.

The Generali Group enjoyed revenue of $107 billion USD in 2005, which has stemmed from a combination of its insurance and financial services businesses. The Generali Group used to provide only insurance but branched out into other areas of financial products relatively recently, and its success has been clear.

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*A replacement car can normally be arranged under one of the following conditions: (1) Comprehensive policyholders – a replacement car may be available under the terms of your insurance policy. Please check your policy details for more information. (2) Non fault accident – where we have the name, car registration number and insurance details of the person who caused the accident, we can supply a replacement car. This is done on a credit hire basis which means the costs for this service will be passed onto the insurance company of the person who caused the accident. We may not be able to arrange a replacement car where we are unable to get an admission of liability from their insurance company, or where the driver is untraceable or uninsured. (3) Repair garage – if your car is booked in for repairs following an accident, the repair garage may be able to provide a replacement car (subject to availability).