General Electric has gathered its reinsurance and commercial insurance businesses under one name. Coinciding with a restructuring of insurance operations, all GE reinsurance and insurance operations will now be called GE Insurance Solutions.

The new brand name replaces Employers Re, GE Re, GE Frankona Re and a dozen other names. Not that many will notice the change. GE says insurance and reinsurance risks will continue to be underwritten by the existing entities whose legal names will not change.

GE Insurance Solutions has more than $US50 billion in combined assets. Its Chairman and CEO, Ron Pressman, says the name change “is significant, yet it’s just the first step towards building a powerful brand”.

The insurance interests aren’t top of the pops with GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt, who last year set out to get the giant group’s insurance interests into some form of order, mainly by selling off minor operations and spinning its life and mortgage operations into a new entity, Genworth Financial, in which it retains a 30% stake.