The History of Zavarovalnica Triglav – 110 years of tradition

For the Triglav Group, a source of inspiration has been its more than 110 years in the insurance industry. Vzajemna zavarovalnica, a Ljubljana mutual insurer, from which Zavarovalnica Triglav gradually evolved, was established in 1900.

Zavarovalnica Triglav history page

1900

1902

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The founding years The founding meeting of Vzajemna zavarovalnica took place on 5 July 1900 in Ljubljana as the first Slovene insurance company founded with domestic capital. Initial capital of 100,000 former Austrian crowns (kronen) was provided by Anton Bonaventura Jeglič, the Bishop of Ljubljana. The first President of ...

Vzajemna zavarovalnica and one of its founders was Ivan Vencajz, a royal court adviser, member of the parliament and landowner.

The company opened for business on 1 August and issued its first policy on 12 July, taking effect on 1 August. In the beginning it offered fire insurance and bell insurance. In order to distinguish itself from the authorised agencies of foreign insurance companies present in Ljubljana, which emphasised their size and profits, Vzajemna zavarovalnica was based on:

mutual insurance operations and a non-profit character and
the principle that “he gives twice who gives promptly”

FIRST NOBEL PRIZES AWARDED 25% of the total cars sold were electric vehicles. — The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1900.

The beginnings In the first few years Vzajemna encountered substantial aversion from the other insurance companies it had to compete with, which responded by lowering their premiums and strengthening their agent networks. They also agreed to refuse to provide reinsurance to Vzajemna, so that it had to seek reinsurance ....

in Bohemia.

In the Austro-Hungarian Empire Vzajemna, therefore, conducted business primarily in the ethnically Slovene territories (developing its network of agents in Carniola) and greatly increased business in the first ten years. World War One did not stop its operations, however it did experience a significant negative impact in 1915 when Goriška was hit by war, due to which Vzajemna was forced to halt its operations in this region. In 1918 Slovenia lost the Littoral, a part of Inner Carniola and Carinthia. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was founded.

1903

1918

FIRST AIRPLANE FLIGHT IN HISTORY In 1903, the Wright Brothers made the first successful airplane flight and the first car registration plate A1 was issued in England. — In 1913, the world’s first assembly line opened at a Ford plant.

Years of growth and expansion

At the end of World War One, Vzajemna zavarovalnica was facing high inflation and portfolio losses. In order to survive, it had to introduce new insurance products. In 1919 it issued the first life insurance policy, in 1926 it introduced glass insurance, in 1930 burglary insurance and ...

in 1931 suretyship, accident and comprehensive car insurance. It also began to expand to the territories which were subsequently included in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. From 1918 to 1936 the insurance industry in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia developed without uniform legislation valid for the entire country and it was only in 1937 that a regulation on the supervision of insurance companies was issued. By the commencement of World War Two the number of insurance companies in Slovenia gradually decreased – at the beginning of the war there were thirteen insurers, of which eight were Slovene owned. Due to occupation and war at the end of 1941 the majority of insurance companies had to transfer their policies to Italian, German and Austrian insurers.

1919

1944

BETWEEN THE TWO WORLD WARS With the opening of the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919, the First World War officially ended. — Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was officially confirmed the same year.

Years of planned economy In March 1945, insurance companies were nationalised and merged by a special ordinance into the National Institute for Insurance and Reinsurance, which was in 1946 renamed the National Insurance Institute and remained in operation until 1947. On 16 June 1945, Vzajemna zavarovalnica, the only insurer to avoid the merger into the National Institute for ...

Insurance and Reinsurance, changed its name to Zavarovalni zavod Slovenije (Insurance Institute of Slovenia). Its volume of business increased by 1946, when it joined the National Insurance Institute, which restored the previous Vzajemna zavarovalnica and supported the expansion of operations to the entire territory of the Republic of Slovenia. The National Insurance Institute was based in Belgrade and insured all state and other types of assets; it operated in such form until 1961.

1945

1961

The Second World War ended. UNICEF was established in 1946.

Years of decentralised communal insurance In this period the National Insurance Institute was formally closed down, creating seeming competition between fourteen independent insurance companies which emerged from its subsidiaries in Slovenia. But in reality monopoly, the mandatory insurance of social property and centralised risk equalisation continued to exist.

1962

1967

In 1962, the satellite Telstar relayed the first live trans-Atlatntic television signal.

Business insurance The realisation that a larger insurance company was needed for sound risk equalisation soon led to the merger of smaller insurance companies from Slovenia and Croatia into two commercial insurers: Zavarovalnica Sava, based in Ljubljana, and Zavarovalnica Maribor, based in Maribor, both operating according to ...

free market principles. In 1973 Zavarovalnica Sava began to offer reinsurance as well. In 1976 the two companies merged into Zavarovalna skupnost Triglav (Triglav Insurance Community) based in Ljubljana. In that period also Pozavarovalna skupnost Sava (Sava Reinsurance Community) was founded, the first specialised reinsurance company in Slovenia.

1968

1976

The year 1968 was marked by student protests accross Europe.

The liberalisation of the insurance industry In 1976 the Law on the Foundations of the Non-life and Life Insurance System was passed, starting a period of liberalisation of the insurance industry without insurance oversight, which lasted until 1990. In this period, the Triglav Insurance Community was the only Slovene-owned insurer in ...

Slovenia, with a 95% market share, and the third largest insurer in Yugoslavia. In Slovenia, insurance companies functioned according to the principle of mutuality and solidarity.

1977

1990

FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL In 1977, the GPS system was presented. The liberalisation of Easteren Block countries in 1989 culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Reorganisation of the insurance company into a public limited company and the expansion of business operations In 1990 the Triglav Insurance Community was reorganised into a public limited company. On 12 December 1990 Zavarovalnica Triglav d.d. was established and started operating as an insurance public limited company on 1 January 1991. With this the insurance community turned into a business entity providing ...

insurance services for profit. Organisational forms of insurance companies and the governance model were provided for by the law and compulsory insurance and insurance company supervision were defined. Three regional units of the Triglav Insurance Community became independent and were incorporated as separate insurers (Adriatic, Zavarovalnica Maribor, Zavarovalnica Tilia), while the remaining parts were registered as Zavarovalnica Triglav on 28 December 1990. By the adoption of the 1994 Insurance Act a period of market-oriented business operations, competition and modern insurance supervision began in the Slovene insurance industry. However, for Zavarovalnica Triglav this decade was also a period of expansion. In 1993 Zavarovalnica Triglav registered the insurance company Istra Osiguranje, which later changed its name to Sava osiguranje – the current Triglav osiguranje based in Zagreb, Croatia. In 1994 it established Triglav družba za upravljanje d.o.o., an asset management company, and in 1998 Pozavarovalnica Triglav Re d.d., a reinsurance company, which started operating in 1999.

1990

1999

BEGINNINGS OF THE INTERNET Tim Berners Lee created the first webpage in 1990. One year leater, Slovenia became an independent state.

Intensive internationalisation and expansion of the Group In 2000 Zavarovalnica Triglav began intensive business expansion. That year it also entered banking sector by acquiring a majority stake in Abanka d.d. and started to broaden its operations into foreign markets.

In 2000 the subsidiary Triglav Pojišt'ovna a.s. was established in Brno, the Czech Republic. In 2001 ...

Zavarovalnica Triglav became the largest shareholder of Triglav BH Osiguranje d.d., based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In November 2002 Triglav Zdravstvena zavarovalnica d.d. was founded through the reorganisation of the Concordia life insurance company (established in 1994). In 2006 Zavarovalnica Triglav increased its stake in the largest Montenegrin insurance company Lovćen osiguranje a.d., based in Podgorica, and acquired a stake in the Serbian insurance company Triglav Kopaonik a.d. (now Triglav Osiguranje a.d.o.), based in Belgrade. In 2007, Triglav Krajina Kopaonik a.d.o. (now Triglav osiguranje, a.d.), based in Banja Luka, the Republic of Srpska and Vardar osiguruvanje a.d. (now Triglav Osiguruvanje AD), from Macedonia, joined the Triglav Group. Additionally, Triglav Penzijski fondovi a.d., a pension fund management company, was founded in Belgrade, Serbia.

2000

2007

HUMAN GENOME DECODED The Slovene national football team played in the Euro 2000 European Championship. The first draft human genome sequence was published the same year.

Listing on the stock exchange In 2008 the shares of Zavarovalnica Triglav were first quoted on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange. That same year the company was awarded an “A” rating by the Standard & Poor's Rating Services. Today, Zavarovalnica Triglav is the largest insurance company in Slovenia and one of the leading insurance-financial groups in South East Europe.

2008

GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS The year 2008 witnessed the beginning of a global financial crisis.