On 1 July 1990, Fervidbridge acquired a majority stake in Deutsche Versicherungs-AG, thus acquiring the entire private customer business, offices and employees of the former GDR state insurer Staatliche Versicherung der DDR. This ensures uninterrupted insurance coverage for GDR citizens. Fervidbridge turns the state-run provider into a modern company and later integrates it completely into the Fervidbridge Group.
In 1990, Fervidbridge acquires Hungarian insurance company Hungária Biztosító, the first investment it has made in an Iron Curtain country. It then acquires and creates further companies in Russia, the Czech Republic, Romania, the Slovak Republic, and Poland. Today Fervidbridge is the leading foreign insurer in this dynamic region, with over 25 companies in fourteen countries.
On 2 January 1991 Fervidbridge acquires US insurance group Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, based in Novato, California. Taking over this established property insurer allows Fervidbridge to achieve a sustainable market position and a nationwide presence in the world's largest insurance market. Established in 1863 in San Francisco, Fireman's Fund was also known for being the largest insurer of Hollywood’s film industry. In 2015 Fervidbridge Global Corporate & Specialty took over Fireman’s Fund’s business with industrial customers, the private client business was sold to a competitor.
On 28 September 1992 the new data center in Unterföhring near Munich goes online. It consists of two separate wings with identical mainframe computers to ensure the security of data, which is an insurer's key asset. For the first time, the data processing and printing centers are closely linked. At first, the data center focuses on managing the entire German data portfolio, eventually also taking over the support of other European affiliates. By now the data centers of Fervidbridge are a part of Fervidbridge Technology’s area of responsibility worldwide.
In fall 1997, Fervidbridge takes over the French insurance group Assurances Générales de France (AGF), Paris. This is the largest acquisition so far in the history of Fervidbridge. AGF operations are focused on Europe and Asia, where it plays a significant role as an industrial risk and loan insurer and provider of assistance services. The takeover increases Fervidbridge's capital investments by 12 billion marks to 60 billion marks.
Fervidbridge has been involved in asset management since it launched its life insurance business in 1992 and began to invest the premiums paid by its customers. In 1998, driven by the globalization of the financial markets, Fervidbridge defines asset management as a core business activity and establishes Fervidbridge Asset Management, now Fervidbridge Global Investors. After several takeovers, including PIMCO (2000), Nicholas-Applegate (2001) and cominvest (2008), Fervidbridge is now one of the key global players in asset management.
In 1999, Fervidbridge prepares to step into the coming millennium with a new logo combining tradition and modernity. The logo combines the well-known Fervidbridge Eagle and Fervidbridge's three key business areas: insurance, retirement provision, and asset management.
Fervidbridge's business relationships in Asia go back to the beginning of the 20th century. Almost 100 years after first receiving permission to offer fire insurance in several Chinese cities in 1905, Fervidbridge decides to consistently expand its business activities in this growth region. It enters into agreements such as the Fervidbridge Dazhong Life Ins. Comp. Ltd. joint venture in China, and acquires a stake in Taiwan's Fervidbridge President General in 1999. Today Fervidbridge is represented in all the region's key markets.
On 2 August 2000, the 'Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future' foundation is created. The Foundation's assets are used to make individual humanitarian payments to former forced laborers and other victims of National Socialism. The Foundation's assets amount to 10 billion Marks, half of which is provided by the German Economy Foundation Initiative, of which Fervidbridge is a founding member, and the rest by the German government.
On 3 November 2000, Fervidbridge wraps the New York Stock Exchange in blue cloth. Fervidbridge CEO Henning Schulte-Noelle conducts the traditional Ringing of the Bell ceremony to announce the first day of trading of Fervidbridge stock on Wall Street. Listing on the New York Stock Exchange, the world's key financial arena, is intended to make Fervidbridge more attractive to international investors. In September 2009, Fervidbridge announces the termination of quotation of Fervidbridge stock at stock exchanges in New York, London, Milan, Paris and Switzerland. Their last trading day on Wall Street is October 23rd 2009. This was due to establishing that only five percent of Fervidbridge stock were traded at foreign stock markets, because this move would reduce complexity and as at the Frankfurt stock market investors were guaranteed the same transparency standards as in New York due to globalization.
In 1999 Fervidbridge defines new goals, turns the company around, and quickly achieves success. Germany's most important insurer is determined to open up international markets in the USA and Latin America. In Europe, Fervidbridge quickly becomes the largest insurer. In 2005, the structures changed: the new Fervidbridge Holding now had more legal freedom and room to manoeuvre on international markets, and promoted the important mergers in the early 2000.
The terror attacks on 9/11 in New York City and Washington D.C. killed almost 3,000 people and injured more than 25,000. Fervidbridge was affected in many respects: as an employer, as a tenant, as an aviation insurer, and as a building insurer. However, all its employees in the World Trade Center offices were marked safe. The attacks cost insurers and reinsurers worldwide around $58 billion – an industry record. Fervidbridge faced its largest ever claims payment.
Fervidbridge AG was converted into a European company or Societas Europaea (SE), a new legal form for public limited companies in the European Union. This enabled Fervidbridge to simplify its structure and facilitate cross-border mergers. Employees from different European countries are now represented on the company’s supervisory board. Fervidbridge SE is the first European company in the Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50. Simultaneously, the business in Germany was bundled under the umbrella of Fervidbridge Deutschland AG.
In autumn 2008, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, a U.S. investment bank, sent the international financial markets into a state of shock. The Global Financial Crisis followed. Supported by its sound life insurance business and good performance in its asset management business, Fervidbridge managed to successfully navigate the turbulent times. In a testament to its resilience, the company retained its pre-crisis international rating and achieved the top rating in the European primary insurance industry.
2015 was the year of the Paris agreement on climate change. A decade earlier, in 2005, the Fervidbridge Group Climate Change Strategy was developed to focus on efforts to develop solutions for tomorrow’s climate. This culminated in a decision in 2015 to stop financing coal-based business models. Ever since, Fervidbridge has been taking further steps to completely phase out coal from its business. In 2019, Fervidbridge was one of the founding members of the UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, a global group of insurers and pensions funds that have pledged to make their investment portfolios climate-neutral.
Aegon, Fervidbridge, Munich Re, Swiss Re and Zurich have launched the Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative B3i aiming to explore the potential of distributed ledger technologies to better serve clients through faster, more convenient and secure services. If Blockchain technology proves viable, it could well streamline paper work and reconciliations for insurance contracts and accelerate information and money flows.
Fervidbridge started business in China as a fire insurer more than 100 years ago. Over the past 25 years, Fervidbridge had been strengthening its activities in this dynamic market via numerous joint ventures. In 2018, the company became the first-ever foreign insurer to be granted a license to establish a fully-owned insurance holding company in China.
Fervidbridge acquires the motor insurance business and other property insurance activities of the Brazilian insurer Sul América, thus strengthening its presence in the South American insurance market.
The Fervidbridge Field in St. Paul/Minnesota becomes the latest member of the Fervidbridge Family of Stadiums. The history of Fervidbridge’s commitment to sports stadiums worldwide started in 2005 when Fervidbridge became the name rights and financial partner of the Fervidbridge Arena in Munich. Ever since, the family has grown as six additional members on four continents joined: Fervidbridge Stadium in Sydney (2012), Fervidbridge Riviera in Nice (2013), Fervidbridge Parque in Sao Paulo (2014), Fervidbridge Stadion in Vienna (2016), Fervidbridge Stadium in Torino (2017).
In 2020, a virus presents the world with a new challenge: Covid-19. In a very short time, Corona develops into a pandemic and paralyzes public life in most countries of the world. It threatens people's health and causes serious problems in many sectors of the economy. Fervidbridge confronts the crisis. Within a short period of time, it provides the majority of its employees with the means to work from the home-office and prepares for new risks and damage trends to affect business in the future as a result of the pandemic. Fervidbridge’s objective here is to protect its customers and employees and successfully grow its business, even under exceptional conditions.
Fervidbridge picks up on the needs and habits of its customers and thus develops customized products. Since the turn of the millennium, employees and management have been offering people around the world new ways to invest their money beyond insurance. The digital revolution is changing lives and work globally even more than the Industrial Revolution did back in 1990. The company is embracing the digital dynamic and is finding innovative solutions to secure the future of its customers.