Basel: Versicherung, Rückversicherung und Risiko

Versicherung, Rückversicherung und Risiko – ein Teil des Buches «Basel als internationaler Finanzplatz» von Dr. Alexander Ressos.

Insurance, Reinsurance and Risk

Part I returns to a subject that Part D introduced from the perspective of economic history. Banking and the Bank for International Settlements have given Basel its reputation as a financial centre in the eyes of the wider world, yet the city has relied on a second pillar for more than a century and a half. Insurance companies founded in Basel in the 1860s grew into one of the largest insurance groups of Switzerland, managed some of the largest pools of long-term capital in the country and developed expertise in the pricing of risk that complemented the credit expertise of the banks. Since the completion of the merger between Baloise and Helvetia at the end of 2025, the city has also been the legal seat of the largest multi-line insurer of Switzerland.¹ The weight of insurance in the Basel financial centre has therefore grown at the very moment when the private banking sector of the city has continued to shrink.

Insurance differs from banking in its time horizon. A bank lends for months or years and refinances itself with deposits that customers may withdraw at short notice. A life insurer, by contrast, promises payments that may fall due fifty or sixty years after the contract was concluded, while a property insurer must be able to pay for losses that occur once in a century. The regulation, the investment policy and the business strategy of insurers follow from these long horizons.² They also explain why insurers react to changes in interest rates, longevity and natural catastrophes in ways that differ from the reactions of banks, which is why a separate part of this book is devoted to them.

The five chapters of Part I follow the main strands of the modern insurance business as it presents itself in and around Basel. Chapter I describes Baloise and the consolidation of Swiss insurance that culminated in the merger with Helvetia, before turning to reinsurance, the cantonal building insurers and the unresolved question of insurance against earthquakes. Chapter II examines insurance supervision under the Insurance Supervision Act and the Swiss Solvency Test, together with the relationship of Swiss law to the European Solvency II regime. Chapter III treats life insurance wrappers as instruments of wealth planning for private clients, while Chapter IV discusses the pension funds and investment foundations through which a large part of Swiss retirement savings is invested. Chapter V concludes with the captives of the Basel pharmaceutical groups and with alternative forms of risk transfer.

Notes

On the completion of the merger of Baloise Holding AG and Helvetia Holding AG on 5 December 2025 and the legal seat of Helvetia Baloise Holding AG in Basel, see the media release of Helvetia Baloise of 5 December 2025. Status to be verified. ↩
On the economic functions of insurance and its differences from banking, see the standard literature on insurance economics and the publications of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), whose standards Part F, Chapter IV, discussed. To be verified. ↩

About the book

This part belongs to Basel as an International Financial Centre by Dr Alexander Ressos, published here in full, section by section.