19.12.1913

Zurich
lake Zurich

United Arab Emirates, United Arab Emirates

By 1914, Swiss Re had approximately 350 employees. Thanks to the breakthrough in the North American market, at the beginning of the second decade of the 1900s, top management were looking to the future with a certain confidence. The fact that the company moved into its neo-baroque building on Mythenquai and celebrated its 50th anniversary in October 1913 also contributed to the feeling of high spirits. This considerable age was unusual in the reinsurance industry and the anniversary was celebrated with enthusiasm.

"During the second 25-year period, from 1889-1913, Swiss Re Insurance Company developed strongly, increasing its business volume and net assets tenfold. Hidden reserves were established in the form of allocations to the technical reserves, especially from the turn of the century, and were used to offset extraordinary losses. It was only thanks to these hidden reserves that we managed to survive the catastrophic loss from the San Francisco fire in 1906 without severe fallout.

However, also during this period, the financial results depended on purely technical factors. Financial operations were restricted – as in the 25 years before – to three accounts: interest, administrative costs and taxes, whose impact were directly related to the volume of underwriting business and thus brought few surprises. The depreciation account only played a very minor role: price gains and losses on securities and write-offs on accounts receivable, real estate, etc, were moderate, and foreign exchange differences were relatively unknown."

From: Paul Guggenbühl "Hausstatistik Vol 1, 1863-1938"

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