History

In 1897 the first of the CNA insurance companies, the Detroit based Continental Assurance Company of North America, opened its doors for business.  In response to increased competition the Continental Assurance Company of North America merged with the Metropolitan Accident Company, moved operations to Chicago and was rebranded as the Continental Casualty Company (CCC) in 1900.  In 1956 the CCC purchased 66% of National Fire Insurance Company of Hartford creating the Continental-National Group. Following this in 1963 C-N Group acquired the American Casualty Company and thus Continental-National-American Group was created. The name CNA became officially used in the late sixties.

In 1995 CNA acquired the Continental Corporation in the first significant merger of two property and casualty companies in more than 25 years. The $1.1 billion-dollar acquisition included a Continental Corporation subsidiary named Marine Office of America Corporation (MOAC), a U.S. based insurer with Canadian presence. On June 30th 1998, CNA completed the acquisition of Maritime Insurance Company Ltd. in the U.K. and its Canadian subsidiary, Eastern Marine Underwriters (EMU) in Canada.  MOAC and EMU were rebranded as CNA Canada in 1998 and 2002 respectively. The Continental Casualty Company is currently the underwriting company for CNA Canada.