panies, and other companies, this part of the law consists of two main divisions
with parallel regulations for the two different kinds of insurance companies.
In addition to this, the Act contains the provisions which the peculiar character
of insurance business, and particularly life insurance, render necessary.
In this respect the nucleus of the Insurance Act consists of the regulations
intended to ensure that the insurance fund shall be reserved as far as possible
for the benefit of the insure'd. The amount of the premium reserve, the essential
part of the insurance fund, shall thus be estimated in accordance with certain
principles laid down by Government. The insurance fund shall be invested
in certain safe securities, which shall be kept under lock and key by a public
official, the policy-holders having a lien on them, as in the case of a pledge
actually in their hands. Moreover, in order to safeguard the interests of the
insured, the Company shall appropriate a certain amount of its capital to a
safety fund, which, subject to penal presecution, shall not drop below a certain
percentage of the insurance fund.
Furthermore, a Board of Insurance Inspection with extensive powers has been
established for the supervision of insurance establishments and the maintenance
of the publicity essential for the benefit of the public.
Of particular importance are the measures adopted for the inspection of insurance
companies in the event of their being wound up or adjudged bankrupt,
— in which cases a special procedure is adopted — and with regard to the voluntary
transference of the life insurance policies. In both these cases the intention
of the law is to safeguard to the greatest possible extent the rights of
individual policy-holders while keeping the insurance stock on the basis of_ the
insurance fund.
Alien Insurance Companies Act.
If an alien insurance company desires to carry on insurance in Sweden, they
shall make application through a general agent possessing certain necessary qualifications,
in' the capacity of trustee: further, prior to starting insurance operations,
certain documents, powers of attorney, certificates, and arguments shall
be submitted to the Board of Insurance Inspection; moreover, proofs shall be
furnished that the Company has in a certain prescribed mode deposited with
the fiiksbank (the Bank of Sweden) an amount of 100 000 kronor for life, fire
and maritime insurance, and of 50 000 kronor for every other kind of insurance.
After the examination of the documents submitted, the inspection authorities
will, if approved, grant the concession demanded. The business will then
be subject to the control of the board of inspectors for insurance and to a certain
degree of publicity, besides which there are provisions aiming at safeguarding
the rights of policy-holders, in case the Company should cease to carry |pn
business in Sweden.
Both Acts contain provisions as to fines for various kinds of infractions
of the law. The need of a modified and perfected insurance law is now universally
admitted. In the first place, since the issue of the Act 1903, there
has been passed a new Companies Act which entails corresponding changes in
the Insurance Act; and in the second place modified views particularly in the
sphere of life insurance, and with regard to the estimation of the insurance
fund and the safety fund, have gradually engendered a powerful current of
opinion in favour of an amended law, even though views on this point have
not yet assumed definitive shape. Some essential modifications in the Act: of
1903 were made by the Riksdag in 1914. The most important change in the
law concerns regulations regarding the premium reserve, which was formerly
computed solely on the basis of a certain death rate and a certain rate of interest.
According to the modified law an estimate of expenditure shall also be
included in the principles for the computation of the premium reserve.
Maritime Insurance. In its preamble, the Maritime Law of 1667
expressly" mentions among the “useful discoveries” that have rendered
the new law necessary, “bottomries and insurance's”, and the actual text
of the law contains an insurance section, divided into eighteen short
chapters.
When that Act was issued, however, Sweden did not possess any insurance
companies of native origin, with the possible exception of a few stray “private
companies” (enhla bolag), in the shape of more or less permanent associations
of private maritime insurers, who through the agency of ship-brokers took over
maritime risks. Swedish ship-owners and merchants were in most cases obliged,
for maritime -insurance, to have recourse to private insurance companies of a
similar kind abroad — doubtless mostly in the Netherlands and in the Hansa
cities of northern Germany; according to an estimate in 0 . v. Dalin’s “Argus” published
in 1733, the maritime insurance premiums dredged the country annually
'-of 1 million Dutch guldens. But by the Royal Ordinance of the 4th July
1739, in response to a petition presented by the Estate of the Burghers, a charter
was granted and. “rules of association”, were authorized for a company based on
voluntarily subscribed stocks and limited liability, designated the sjSassuranskom-
paniet, the Maritime Assurance Society; it began its operations in the following
year, and was thus one of the earliest insurance companies in Europe
in thé maritime insurance line. The second Swedish company of the same nature,
the Stockholms Sjôasssurans SalUTcap, the Stockholm Maritime Assurance
Soç|ety, did not receive its charter till 1816. In 1844 was formed the first
large mutual insurance company in this line of insurance, notably the Stockholms
Sj'oassuransforening, the Stockholm Maritime Insurance Union, which however,
like the two companies previously mentioned, has now passed out of existence.
The very considerable development that native insurance business has
now attained in Sweden — for considerable it is for Swedish conditions ■
— does not date further back than the sixties and the seventies, when
several joint-stock companies based on entirely modern principles were
brought into being. At the'termination of 1912 there were 10 of these
conjpanies in . operation : the Gauthiod (chartered in 1863), the Stockholm
Sjôfôrsakringsaktiebolag (1867), Agir (1872), Ocean (1872), Sveriges
Allmanna Sjoforsâkringsaktiebolag (1872), Vega (1882), Sjoassurans-
kompianiet (1889), Oresund (1890), Hansa (1905), and Nordisk Yaoht-
assurans (1905). In the same year 30 mutual Swedish companies were in
operation, among which the Sveriges Ângfartygsassuransfôrening, the
Swedish Steamship Insurance Union, is the most considerable. In
Sweden the speculative business enterprises play a far more important
rôle in maritime insurance than the mutual institutions, which, as a general
rule, is also the case abroad. Besides the Swedish institutions, there were
operating in this branch of insurance in Sweden in 1912 also 9 foreign
companies: a few of which also give insurance on values. The business
transacted by the said companies in 1912 aggregated the following amounts
in kronor: