Major global insurance and financial services companies experienced the World Trade Center disaster directly because of their offices there. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, many of these same firms have used the Internet to communicate with employees and customers regarding the disaster. These communications reveal that some firms were able to evacuate all of their employees successfully before the buildings collapsed. Others were not so fortunate. This article identifies the affected companies and examines some of their Internet communications over the days immediately after the events took place.

An examination of the Wall Street Journal’s list of tenants in the two main buildings of the World Trade Center demonstrates how profoundly this terrorist act struck at the heart of the global financial system. Although some of the companies on the list are little known, many others are among the largest insurance and financial firms in the world.

In the insurance industry, major international brokers AON and Marsh were particularly hard-hit, because they occupied multiple floors near the top of their respective buildings. Major managed care company Empire Health Choice had offices on multiple floors, but they were lower in the building. In the banking industry, Fiduciary Trust International Bank and Fuji Bank had offices on multiple floors high in the buildings. A large number of Japanese and other Asian banks had offices on single floors, but many of them were also very high in the buildings. In the securities industry, U.S. firm Morgan Stanley was by far the worst hit because of its approximately 20 floors of offices. But other major securities firms were also affected, including TD Waterhouse Group, Oppenheimer Funds, Lehman Brothers, Commerzbank Capital Markets, Nikko Securities, Hyundai Securities, and Cantor-Fitzgerald Securities (which had the top five floors of one building). This tragedy personally affected not only people from the United States but also the people from all over the world who worked in the World Trade Center with them. LOMA has had long relationships with some of these organizations. It is difficult to write this article without weeping.

The Companies Affected
Table One contains a list of insurance organizations with offices in the two main towers of the complex. The numbers indicate the building floors occupied by these companies. Table Two offers a similar list of banks, and Table Three lists securities companies with World Trade Center facilities.

In addition to these firms, the Chicago Options Exchange Corporation had offices on the 22^nd floor of the North Tower and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a government regulator of commodities trading, had them on the 37^th floor of the North Tower. Instinet, an electronic securities trading network, operated on the 13^th and 14^th floors of the North Tower.

Both Kemper Insurance (on floors 35 and 36 of the North Tower) and Fireman’s Fund were able to evacuate all of their employees safely before the buildings collapsed. Fireman’s Fund had 190 employees on the 47^th and 48^th floors of the South Tower. They began evacuation immediately after the first plane hit.

Messages from the Internet
Here are excerpts from messages published on the Internet sites of some of the most affected institutions.

Marsh McLennan
A transcription of an audio file made by Marsh McLennan chairman Jeff Greenberg stated the following:

"Approximately 1,700 of our people—from Marsh, Mercer, Guy Carpenter, Seabury & Smith, and MMC Enterprise Risk—worked in the World Trade Center. Other colleagues were known to be in the two buildings…

"At this state, we need to help, protect, support, and comfort our colleagues. We cherish our family and when you lose any member its hurts. There has been a great outpouring of compassion from people who want to help—MMC employees, clients and friends around the world. I want to thank you for your compassion and desire to help.

"Here is what we know as of September 12 at 12:00 noon, eastern daylight time. As of this moment, we know that more than 1,000 colleagues are safe. And for that we are deeply grateful.

"MMC volunteers have been staffing a control center around the clock on the 35^th floor of 1166 Avenue of the Americas. They have been receiving information, and new names of those who are safe are called in continually. If you have any definite information about employees who worked at or were visiting the World Trade Center—including any communication yesterday you might have received—please call this number…. If you are unable to access this number pleasure use the "contact us" button above to send us a message. We want to know where every member of our family is.

"We are in touch with all the local hospitals and expect information from them. As we learn more about the status and whereabouts of our colleagues, we will let you know.

"These are difficult times. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of our colleagues and their families who have suffered from this tragedy. We will do all that we can to provide counseling and support for our colleagues and their families.

"Operations outside of downtown Manhattan were very little affected. Although we have much to do, I can assure you that MMC is up to the challenge. For many years, we have had disaster recovery plans, and we are moving ahead with our backup systems and procedures. We ask for your patience. We have tremendously capable people from all parts of the company working on these issues, and we have made exceptional progress in the past 24 hours.

"In addition to our responsibilities to one another, we have responsibilities to our clients, some of whom had offices in the World Trade Center and others who suffered significant losses in yesterday’s tragic events. Our clients need to know that their trust and confidence in our company is well placed. They need our help, and we must move swiftly. Ingenuity and initiative will be at a premium. I am confident that we will continue to provide the quality and professionalism that is the essence of this great firm."

In a subsequent message, dated at 3 p.m., September 13, the firm announced that it believed that 1,300 of its 1,700 employees were safe, with 400 still missing.

AON Corporation
AON’s chairman and CEO, Patrick G. Ryan, posted a similar message on the AON Web site.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the many people affected by Tuesday’s tragedy. We deeply appreciate the outpouring of assistance and concern being extended by our employees around the world as well as from the public more broadly.

"Approximately 1,100 AON employees worked in the World Trade Center Tower #2, and our first concern is for their safety and well being. The amount of information we have is still limited due to the scope of this tragedy; however, we will try to provide updates as quickly as news becomes available.

"As of the afternoon of September 12^th, the vast majority of our AON colleagues who worked at the World Trade Center or who had traveled there on business have been reported safe. We are deeply relieved to know that the number of confirmed survivors is growing, and we continue to hope and pray that we will find even more of our AON family safe. AON employees at the command center in Glenview, Illinois, continue to work around the clock to contact New York-based employees and their families in an effort to account for all of our employees.

"While our primary focus will continue to be our colleagues and their families, we also need to be concerned for the business and personal needs of our clients, many of whom also suffered losses in this terrible tragedy. To that point, we have agreed that unless local authorities direct otherwise, our offices everywhere in the world except new York City will be open for business to assist clients and policyholders during this very difficult period. We are finalizing plans as to where our World Trade Center operations will relocate, and we will provide this information to employees and clients as soon as possible. If you need assistance immediately, please call us at one of the toll-free numbers listed below.

"We hope you will be patient with us as we continue to work through our recovery plans during this very difficult time.

"New York employees and their families should call ... as soon as possible, as we are collecting information on the safety of our employees. A toll number for international callers has also been established at …. We also ask that New York employees send us their name and home e-mail addresses, as we want to be able to contact them with further information as it becomes available... Due to the large volume of e-mails, we are not able to respond to each individually, but be assured we will e-mail information as it becomes available."

Morgan Stanley
The message from Morgan Stanley chairman Philip Purcell was worded similarly:

"The shocking events of this week at the World Trade Center have not posed a financial problem for Morgan Stanley but a deeply human one. What dominates our concerns are those people who may not have escaped the explosion and the fires as the twin towers collapsed.

"We can report that we have been in touch with most of the people who worked for us at the World Trade Center complex. But a number are still unaccounted for, and it is clear that we have lost friends and colleagues. Our thoughts and prayers are will the families and friends of those who died or are still missing, and these people remain the immediate focus of the firm.

"We are working diligently with local authorities, and we will keep you apprised of developments. A call center has been established at...for anyone with information about those who were working in the World Trade Center, or may have been there on a visit.

"Fortunately, the U.S. and global financial systems are highly resilient, and this firm is resilient as well. In the last two days, people in our firm, like so many in the city, have demonstrated great characters, courage, and even heroism. We are deeply grateful to all those who have risen in the face of these challenges to give the best of themselves, and we appreciate their efforts to get on with the demands of their daily lives despite grievous challenges.

"Markets have been relatively quiet and subdued in the wake of the disaster. We want our clients to know today that in spite of the tragedies, all of our businesses are functioning and will continue to function.

"We will resume full operations as exchanges and markets reopen. All our clients should rest assured that their assets are safe and our financial advisors are hard at work contacting our individual investors to answer questions and address their concerns.

"Institutional clients concerned about specific positions or operations should call their established contacts…. The Institutional Securities Division will be carrying on business in all locations outside of the United States….

"We are continuing to implement emergency contingency plans to ensure that our institutional and individual investor businesses can resume business at the earliest possible opportunity."

The Social Role of the Internet
September 11, 2001, was a sad day for the financial services community, but one in which the Internet demonstrated its ever more important social role.