The Tradition of the Hamburg Exchange

In the year 1558, the council of the city of Hamburg permitted the common merchant to build an exchange at the 'Trostbrücke' directly opposite the Town Hall. The procurement and closing of insurance contracts had always belonged to the activities of this 'Hamburg Exchange' since it's founding. Since the formation of specialised exchanges, this branch of business developed into one of the most significant branch within the 'Hamburg Exchange'. As such, the 'Hamburg Insurance Exchange' could already look back to a centuries old tradition.

The 'Hamburg Insurance Exchange' in its current form, as one of the five specialised exchanges on the 'Hamburg Exchange', has been in existence since 1977 – previously having belonged to the 'Hamburg Exchange'. In addition to the 'Hamburg Insurance Exchange', there are the 'Stock Exchange', the 'Coffee Exchange' and the 'Grain Exchange'.

The 'Hamburg Insurance Exchange' has its own rules and regulations and scale of charges and fees. The exchange regulations set the rules for admission:

- Excerpt from the exchange regulations figure IV § 14 ff:

For the purposes of admission to the Hamburg Exchange, only the following companies and/or individuals are permitted: those who commercially process or procure insurance policies either for their own account or on behalf of others and therewith the interrelated service providers and those who maintain in a businesslike manner an established company and convince that they will maintain regular attendance at the Exchange.

Additionally, those companies, and, as the case may be, individuals are also permitted, that conduct interrelated services for the insurance business. This defined group is composed of those who act as experts and/or adjusters for the transport insurance market; the latter are experts who apportion losses and costs arising from so-called 'general average'.

Currently, the Hamburg Insurance Exchange has altogether 173 companies listed and 633 individuals admitted.