In the mid-1990s, new products in the field of risk financing emerged in the reinsurance market. At the time, internationally active reinsurers in particular began offering alternative forms of risk financing for the first time, in cooperation with banks and consulting firms. These new offerings could be used by private insurance groups through their foreign subsidiaries, or through large, internationally active reinsurers – but not by the public insurers.

The only alternative left to the public insurers was to place their business outside the group of public insurers on the private market. Business that was lost to Deutsche Rück.

The shareholders engaged in intensive discussions about whether and how Deutsche Rück should once again become active abroad, in order to be able to offer these new forms of risk transfer as well. Ultimately, the decision was made to take a cautious first step beyond Germany’s borders.

Logo of DR Swiss

The subsidiary, DR Swiss – Deutsche Rückversicherung Switzerland Ltd, headquartered in Zurich, was founded and commenced operations in October 2000.

The DR Swiss head office on Schweizergasse in Zurich

Report from the "Sonntagszeitung": Deutsche Rück newly established in Zurich

News item from the "Sonntagszeitung" (Switzerland), 22 August 2000.

Modest Objectives

The business objectives for the new company were deliberately kept very modest. After all, there were still considerable reservations among the shareholders regarding any involvement abroad. For this reason, DR Swiss was to proceed with extreme caution. In addition, the insurer VHV Versicherungen, Hanover, Germany, was brought on board as a partner and acquired a 25 per cent stake in DR Swiss. The reasoning at the time was that the potential risks would thereby also be shared with a company outside the group of public insurers.

The first small step towards later international expansion had been taken.

With DR Swiss, the public insurers gained an opportunity to expand abroad through their own group institutions. The new subsidiary in Zurich also made alternative models of risk financing possible within the group of German public insurers.