Talanx AG

Talanx is the third largest insurer in Germany. It sells insurance to businesses, individuals, and reinsures other insurers. The origins of Talanx go back to the early 1900s and the founding of two mutuals in Germany, HDI and FSV, that were set up to provide liability insurance to the German iron and steel industry, and fire insurance to the German mining industry as a result of a growing dissatisfaction with providers of insurance. These two mutuals merged to form Halfplichtverband der Deutschen Industrie, or HDI, in 1970. Over the years companies outside of metals and mining have joined the mutual. HDI started providing reinsurance services in the mid-1920s, and individual insurance in the 1950s. HDI owns just over three-quarters of the Talanx share capital.