On 10–11 May 1861, more than 500 houses went up in flames in the town of
Glarus, Switzerland. Two-thirds of the town was reduced to rubble and ashes and around 3,000 inhabitants were made homeless. The damage to Glarus exceeded the reserves of the cantonal fire insurance, which had underinsured many cantonal buildings: the resulting loss was covered by donations, as well as a bond issue by the cantonal government. Similarly to the
fire of Hamburg in 1842, which led to the foundation of the first professional reinsurers in Germany, the fire of Glarus made Swiss insurers demand more
reinsurance coverage against catastrophic loss. As a result, Swiss Re was founded in Zürich as the first Swiss reinsurance company in 1863. Swiss Re was a lead insurer of the
World Trade Center at the time of the
September 11 attacks, which led to an insurance dispute with the owner,
Silverstein Properties. In October 2006, the New York appeals court ruled in favor of Swiss Re, stating that the destruction of the twin towers was a single event rather than two, limiting coverage to $3.5 billion. Swiss Re acquired the GE Insurance Solutions property/casualty business in 2006, which made it the world's largest reinsurer. In 2009
Warren Buffett invested $2.6 billion when Swiss Re raised more equity capital after it lost 6 billion francs in its financial market operations in the
2008 financial crisis. Berkshire Hathaway already owns a 3% stake, with rights to own more than 20%. In May 2016, the
Fort McMurray Canadian wildfires caused estimated damages of up to
CAD10 billion, with Swiss Re having the most exposure among reinsurers. Swiss Re's Admin Re subsidiary began with the acquisition on 1 July 2004 of Life Assurance Holding Corporation in the UK. On 31 October 2008, Swiss Re completed a £762 million acquisition of Barclays PLC's subsidiary Barclays Life Assurance Company Ltd. In June 2014, the company, through Admin Re, acquired the UK pensions business of
HSBC Life (UK) Limited worth £4.2 billion. The Admin Re business, which was renamed ReAssure, was eventually sold to Phoenix Group Holdings for £3.2bn in July 2020. In February 2022, it was announced that Swiss Re had acquired Champlain Reinsurance Company (Champlain Re), a Swiss-based run-off reinsurance captive of Alcan Holdings Switzerland AG, a member of
Rio Tinto Alcan, in a legacy transaction. Later that month, Swiss Re declared a net profit of US$1.6 billion, in a bounce back from previous losses in 2020. Still, the exposure to
COVID-19 in America was excessive; together with increased damages from natural catastrophes, profits were well below the US$1.8 billion estimate. Swiss Re was able to make up for some of its losses due to its increased property business. At the same time, the board of directors assured investors that the company is only minimally exposed to losses during the
Ukraine crisis. In December 2023, Swiss Re announced it had acquired research-led flood risk intelligence firm Fathom, which would retain its brand while working closely with the Reinsurance Solutions division to further develop and distribute its flood maps and models. ==Business structure==