Berkshire Hathaway Assurance

Last updated
Berkshire Hathaway Assurance
Company type Private
Industry Insurance
FoundedDecember 2007;17 years ago (2007-12) in Omaha, Nebraska, United States
Key people
Donald Wurster
(President)
Sunil Khanna
(Senior Vice President)
Forrest Krutter
(Senior Vice President)
Kara Raiguel
(Vice President)
Brian Snover
(Vice President)
Owner Berkshire Hathaway
Parent National Indemnity

Berkshire Hathaway Assurance is a bond insurance company created by Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. in December 2007. [1] [2] [3]

History

Berkshire created this government bond insurance company in December 2007 to insure municipal and state bonds. [4] [5] These type bonds are issued by local governments to finance public works projects such as schools, hospitals, roads, and sewer systems. BHA began insurance operations in New York, with plans to move on to California, Puerto Rico, Texas, Illinois, and Florida. [6] On February 12, 2008, Warren Buffett announced a plan to add up to $5 billion in capital to BHA to enable it to provide reinsurance on municipal bonds currently guaranteed by Ambac, MBIA, and Financial Guaranty Insurance Company. [7] Buffet also announced BHA had closed its first deal to insure $50 million in debt for a 2% fee. [7] In 2014, Moody's said its credit rating was Aa1. [8] [9] It also has a rating of AAA from S&P. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berkshire Hathaway</span> American multinational conglomerate holding company

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Originally a textile manufacturer, the company transitioned into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of chairman and CEO Warren Buffett and vice chairman Charlie Munger (1978–2023). Greg Abel now oversees most of the company's investments and has been named as the successor to Buffett. Buffett personally owns 38.4% of the Class A voting shares of Berkshire Hathaway, representing a 15.1% overall economic interest in the company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Credit default swap</span> Financial swap agreement in case of default

A credit default swap (CDS) is a financial swap agreement that the seller of the CDS will compensate the buyer in the event of a debt default or other credit event. That is, the seller of the CDS insures the buyer against some reference asset defaulting. The buyer of the CDS makes a series of payments to the seller and, in exchange, may expect to receive a payoff if the asset defaults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swiss Re</span> Swiss reinsurance company

Swiss Re Ltd is a Swiss reinsurance company founded in 1863 and headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. It is one of the world's largest reinsurers, as measured by gross premiums written. Swiss Re operates through around 80 offices in 29 countries and employs over 14,000 people. It was ranked 519th on the Forbes Global 2000 list and ranked 316th on the Fortune Global 500 in 2023. Swiss Re is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gen Re</span> American reinsurance company

General Reinsurance Corporation is an American multinational property/casualty and life/health reinsurance company offering a range of reinsurance products and services. The company is a primarily direct reinsurer and is represented in all major reinsurance markets worldwide through a network of more than 40 offices. Gen Re is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Chubb Limited is an American–Swiss company incorporated in Zürich, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) where it is a component of the S&P 500. Chubb is a global provider of insurance products covering property and casualty, accident and health, reinsurance, and life insurance and is the largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company in the world. Chubb operates in 55 countries and territories and in the Lloyd's insurance market in London. Clients of Chubb consist of multinational corporations and local businesses, individuals, and insurers seeking reinsurance coverage. Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance, and life insurance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ambac</span> American financial services company

The Ambac Financial Group, Inc., generally known as Ambac, is an American holding company. Its subsidiaries provide financial guarantee products such as bond insurance to clients in both the public and private sectors globally. Ambac Assurance is a guarantor of public finance and structured finance obligations. Its common stock and common stock purchase warrants are listed on the NYSE under the symbols AMBC and AMBCW respectively. Ambac is regulated by the insurance commission of Wisconsin. It has its headquarters in Lower Manhattan, New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Markel Group</span> US financial services company

Markel Group Inc. is a group of companies headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, and originally founded in 1930 as an insurance company.

Insurance Australia Group Limited (IAG) is a multinational insurance company. It is the largest general insurance company in Australia, and also the largest in New Zealand through its subsidiary IAG New Zealand. IAG had its origins in the National Roads and Motorists' Association NRMA. It is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catastrophe bond</span> Risk-linked securities

Catastrophe bonds are a subset of insurance-linked securities (ILS) that transfer a specified set of risks from a sponsor to investors. They were created and first used in the mid-1990s in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew and the Northridge earthquake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MBIA</span> American financial services company

MBIA Inc. is an American financial services company. It was founded in 1973 as the Municipal Bond Insurance Association. It is headquartered in Purchase, New York, and as of January 1, 2015 had approximately 180 employees. MBIA is the largest bond insurer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allianz Trade</span> International insurance company

Allianz Trade is an international insurance company that offers a range of services, including trade credit insurance, debt collection, surety bonds and guarantees, business fraud insurance and political risk protection. It monitors the financial health of over 80 million companies.

Bond insurance, also known as "financial guaranty insurance", is a type of insurance whereby an insurance company guarantees scheduled payments of interest and principal on a bond or other security in the event of a payment default by the issuer of the bond or security. It is a form of "credit enhancement" that generally results in the rating of the insured security being the higher of (i) the claims-paying rating of the insurer or (ii) the rating the bond would have without insurance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Schroeder</span> American author

Alice D. Schroeder is an American executive, financial journalist, and author who was Berkshire Hathaway's leading sell-side insurance analyst at Morgan Stanley and later became Warren Buffett's appointed biographer. Schroeder remains a widely-regarded insurance expert, having most recently served as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Prudential PLC. In the first week of October 2008, she published The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, a New York Times bestseller. As a project manager for the US Financial Accounting Standards Board, she oversaw the release of SFAS No. 113, a critical change in US reinsurance accounting regulations. Since 2008, Schroeder has worked as a columnist for Bloomberg News.

This article is a subordinate article to the subprime mortgage crisis. It covers some of the miscellaneous effects of the crisis in more detail, to preserve the flow of the main page.

Financial Security Assurance (FSA) was an American financial guaranty insurance company. FSA was bought in 2000 for EUR€2.7 billion by the Franco-Belgian bank Dexia. In 2007, before the 2008 financial crisis, FSA was ranked number four among global monoline credit insurers. In 2009, it was acquired by Assured Guaranty Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sogaz</span> Russian insurance company

SOGAZ is a Russian insurance company. SOGAZ became the first in Russia by written premium and market share (12.1%) in 2016. The company was formed in 1993 and has direct business in Russia and Serbia. Insurance company SOGAZ as well have shares in many companies and own a number of insurers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian National Reinsurance Company</span>

Russian National Reinsurance Company (RNRC) is the largest Russian reinsurance company. The Central Bank of Russia is a full shareholder of RNRC. The state-owned reinsurance company was established in 2016. RNRC is the largest in terms of the authorized share capital and second-largest in terms of paid-in capital on the domestic insurance market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Build America Mutual</span>

Build America Mutual Assurance Company is a mutual, monoline bond insurer of essential public-purpose U.S. municipal bonds. Since its inception in July 2012, the company has insured more than $65 billion in par amount for more than 3,300 member-issuers. In 2018, it insured $8.36 billion par across 653 new-issue insured transactions. BAM also publishes a credit profile for every transaction it insures and updates them. More than 6,000 are now available. The company is the preferred provider of financial guaranty insurance on debt for member municipalities of the National League of Cities. NLC endorsed BAM upon its launch.

ZEP-RE is a specialised institution of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) created under charter. The Company is currently headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.

References

  1. "Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) Company Profile". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2018-01-21. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  2. "Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corp: Company Profile". Bloomberg. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  3. Bajaj, Vikas (29 December 2007). "A Deal Maker With a Hot Hand Opens His Wallet". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  4. Crippen, Alex (22 February 2008). "Buffett's Berkshire Backs Over 100 Muni Bonds In Last Two Days". CNBC. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  5. "Buffett may build bond insurer with ING reinsurer - Dec. 28, 2007". 31 December 2007. Archived from the original on 31 December 2007. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  6. Berkshire Hathaway to buy reinsurer, start bond insurer - MarketWatch
  7. 1 2 David Ellis (2008-02-12). "Buffett offers to help ailing bond insurers". Fortune. Archived from the original on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  8. "Moody's affirms Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corporation's Aa1 insurance financial strength rating; outlook stable". Moodys.com. 24 January 2014. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  9. GmbH, finanzen.net. "Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corporation -- Moody's affirms Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corporation's Aa1 IFS rating; outlook stable". markets.businessinsider.com. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  10. Chang, Sue. "S&P rates Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corp. 'AAA'". MarketWatch. Retrieved 20 January 2018.