Fast-food giant McDonald’s has completed the wind-up of its decades-long global insurance operation in Dublin by changing the unit’s name and handing back its licence to the Central Bank of Ireland.
The former Golden Arches Insurance DAC has been renamed as Golden Arches Georges Quay DAC, according to recent filings with the Companies Registration Office (CRO).
Golden Arches Insurance, managed by Aon in Ireland, had served as McDonald’s international insurance unit for almost three decades. The business was put into run-down in 2021, with general liability policies subsequently issued by a unit of Zurich Insurance Group in Vienna and reinsured by McDonald’s insurance company in Bermuda.
Golden Arches Insurance said in its latest annual financial report, filed with the CRO at the end of November, that it was on track to hand back its insurance licence to the central bank in Dublin by the end of December.
The High Court approved the transfer of the Irish company’s insurance liabilities to the Zurich Insurance subsidiary in October.
Golden Arches Insurance posted a pretax loss of $11.1 million (€10.6 million) in 2023, up from a shortfall of $1.64 million for the previous year, as it continued to run down its business in anticipation of the transfer. Net claims during the period amounted to $8.51 million, according to the latest annual financial statement.
Its accumulated retained loss stood at $13.1 million at the end of the period.
What’s in store for 2025?
The Dublin-based company had been writing gross annual written premiums of between $45 million and $55 million — mainly covering risks in Europe — in the years before it was put into wind-down.
Golden Arches Insurance was established to protect the McDonald’s brand in managing insurance risks as well as to provide the system with a cost-effective alternative to the commercial insurance market, according to the US restaurant chain.
Its standard package — offered to McDonald’s operated restaurants as well as those run under a franchise — provides property, business interruption, general liability, crime and personal injury insurance coverages.
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