old church in front of new building

The foundation of Euler Hermes

With over 100 years' history, Euler Hermes has expanded organically or through acquisitions to become the world's largest credit insurer. Today the group is present in over 50 countries.

After the acquisition by Euler of the German credit insurance group Hermes from Allianz in July 2002, the Euler Hermes group put in place a global harmonisation process of all its brands with a common visual identity.

The current Euler Hermes group has mainly been built up by its two largest subsidiaries, Euler Hermes SFAC in France and Euler Hermes Kreditversicherung in Germany.

SFAC was founded in 1927 by several large insurance companies, including Assurances Générales (a forerunner to AGF) and Swiss Reinsurance company and has hold since its beginning the no. 1 position in the French credit insurance market.

HERMES Kreditversicherungs-AG was founded in 1917 by two members of Münchner Rückversicherungs- Gesellschaft and Globus Versicherungs-AG. In 1949 it became the guarantor of export credit for the Federal Republic of Germany in co-operation with Deutsche Revisions- und Treuhand AG. Today HERMES is the leading credit insurer in Germany and has leading positions in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia.

In 1964, SFAC entered the factoring business by creating SFF Affacturage, which, in 1999, merged with Credit Lyonnais' factoring subsidiary. The new company EUROFACTOR is today European leader in integrated factoring. Meanwhile HERMES also supplemented its activities in credit management by adding bonding & guarantees to its service range.

During the 90s both SFAC (now a holding company) and HERMES started to expand in international markets by acquiring leading credit insurers or creating new subsidiaries. In 1996 AGF became a majority shareholder of the holding company SFAC while Allianz took control over HERMES. During the same year, the holding company SFAC changed its name to EULER. In 1998, Allianz acquired a majority shareholding in AGF.

In 1999, EULER and HERMES sign a co-operation agreement in order to co-ordinate their international development. In 27 April 2000, EULER floated on the Paris Stock Exchange.

In September 2001 the Allianz Group and AGF announced their intention to join their respective credit insurance companies through the acquisition of HERMES by EULER.

Allianz Logo