HIH Insurance

HIH Insurance Ltd
Formerly
  • CE Heath International Holdings Limited (1988–1996)
  • HIH Winterthur International Holdings Limited (1996–1998)[1]
Company typePublic
IndustryHealth insurance
Founded6 April 1988; 36 years ago (1988-04-06) in Canberra, ACT, Australia[2]
Defunct15 March 2001 (2001-03-15)
FateProvisional liquidation
Headquarters,
Australia
Area served
Australia
WebsiteHIH Insurance at the Wayback Machine (archived 2001-02-02)
Corporate failure of HIH Insurance
HIH Insurance corporate logo
InquiriesRoyal Commission into HIH Insurance
Convicted

HIH Insurance was Australia's second-largest insurance company before it was placed into provisional liquidation on 15 March 2001. The demise of HIH is considered to be the largest corporate collapse in Australia's history, with liquidators estimating that HIH's losses totalled up to $5.3 billion. Investigations into the cause of the collapse have led to conviction and imprisonment of a handful of members of HIH management on various charges relating to fraud. A Royal Commission was formed in the wake of the collapse. It also led to the 2002 Review of the Law of Negligence led by David Ipp and subsequent Tort reform.

  1. ^ "HIH INSURANCE LIMITED HIH - Profile ii Status". www.delisted.com.au. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  2. ^ "Search Results - Organisations and Business Names". Australian Securities & Investments Commission. Retrieved 16 July 2019.