1957

Monte Carlo

United Arab Emirates

In the post-war period, reinsurers began to look at how they could more efficiently exchange ideas and share industry know-how. Among a growing number of reinsurers battling complex technical issues, the opportunities for the necessary contacts and discussions could not be ensured simply during a marine insurance conference or other types of gatherings.

Some reinsurers entertained the thought of founding an international reinsurance association. A foundation assembly was convened in San Remo but failed since only four countries favoured such an association.

But with every year that passed it became more pressing to create an alternative platform for communication. When a first meeting was convened by reinsurers in Monte Carlo in 1957, it was rather experimental and clearly still in its formative stages. The organizers consistently spoke of a "rendezvous of insurers and reinsurers," thus highlighting the call of the Monte Carlo meeting that a platform for the insurance industry be organized each year, which could have integrative functions.

The organizational committee of Monte Carlo appointed André Roux, then president of Assurances Générales de France, as chairman. Monte Carlo was chosen as the conference location, among other reasons, because there was no local insurance company in the Principality of Monaco; therefore the city-state was perceived as neutral in terms of insurance.

Les Rendez-vous de Septembre in Monte Carlo has since become the most important annual gathering of the international reinsurance industry, attracting more than 2,500 professionals from over 80 countries.

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