A Canadian financial holding company. Its subsidiary Crum & Forster is the largest bail insurance company in the US.
Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited is a financial holding company headquartered in Toronto, Canada. It has over 20 wholly owned subsidiaries that operate in the property and casualty insurance, reinsurance, and investment industries.
Fairfax subsidiary Crum & Forster, based in Morristown, N.J., is the largest bail bond insurer and underwriter in the US. As of 2024, the company offers bail bonds through five companies: Crum & Forster Indemnity Company, MTAW Insurance Company, The North River Insurance Company, Seneca Insurance Company, and United States Fire Insurance Company. Fairfax has been highlighted by the ACLU, Color of Change, and other organizations as a primary driver of the “predatory bail bond and bail insurance industry in the United States, which disproportionately impacts communities of color, prolonging incarceration for those who cannot afford bail and trapping others in cycles of debt.”
Crum & Forster has significantly expanded its operations in the wake of several major bail insurance companies exiting the industry. For example, the company acquired Bail USA from global insurance company Tokio Marine HCC in April 2019. One month prior, it acquired bail bond company Accredited Surety and Casualty Company, Inc. from global specialty insurance company R&Q Insurance Holdings. (Both Tokio Marine HCC and R&Q Insurance Holdings fully exited the bail industry with the sales of their bail bond businesses.)
Crum & Forster has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on fighting bail reform efforts in the U.S. Between 2018 and 2020, the company contributed over $330,000—via Bail USA and United States Fire Insurance Company—to the “No on Prop 25” campaign. Led by the American Bail Coalition (ABC)—a trade association made up of national bail insurance companies—Prop. 25 would have abolished California’s cash bail system. Bail USA’s website also previously featured a page that called on readers to “Help Fight Bail Reform in California” and matched donations to a committee established to try to preserve for-profit bail in the state. The page noted that Crum & Forster/Bail USA would match bond agents’ campaign contributions up to $500,000.