Caisse Centrale de Reassurance SA (CCR)

The financial crisis had a limited impact on CCR’s balance sheet as the company does not have any significant exposure to financial market risks. However, the company had to set aside €10.0mn as a provision to cover the long term depreciation of assets, the value of which had declined by more than 30.0% over the previous six months. On the underwriting front, CCR’s lack of direct exposure to the US meant it was largely left untouched by the havoc caused by Hurricane Ike (which devastated the results of a great many other reinsurers) in September of last year

The French reinsurance company Caisse Centrale de Reassurance (CCR) is different from most other reinsurers in quite a few ways, but two things about the company are immediately obvious: CCR is the only state-owned reinsurer in the developed world (i.e. Western Europe and North America) and, quite tellingly in these times of financial and other uncertainties, it is the only insurance or reinsurance company in the world with a AAA insurer financial strength rating from Standard & Poor’s.