Earliest Insurance

Insurance is thousands of years old. The Code of Hammurabi, a collection of Babylonian laws of the 1700's B.C., included a form of credit insurance. A borrower did not have to repay a loan if personal misfortune made it impossible to do so. The borrower paid an extra amount for this protection in addition to the interest.

Ancient Greek and Roman organizations provided their members with old-age pensions and disability insurance and with money for the members' burial. During the Middle Ages, guilds (associations) formed by craftworkers offered the same types of insurance as well as fire and theft insurance to their members.