Insurance

Although there are some variations between individual countries, the evolution of insurance markets within western Europe has tended to follow a defined pattern. Apart from the supply of marine and other insurance related to international trade, most insurance companies have emerged from local origins. This is because insurance companies, being in a service industry, compete primarily by responding to the needs of their customers. As industrial and commercial customers extended their enterprises to a wider regional and then national networks of operations, so insurance companies followed. Furthermore, as the larger corporate customers subsequently expanded internationally, insurance companies were again under competitive pressure to set up overseas agencies, branches and subsidiaries abroad. This expansion of the larger insurance companies, both domestically and internationally, was often accompanied by mergers and acquisitions, in order not only to obtain the local expertise to service client needs, but also to build up quickly a commercially viable operation.