The Geneva Association is the leading international “think tank” of the insurance industry.

Between 1975 and 1978, The Geneva Association sponsored research into European fire costs by Tom Wilmot at Sussex University. This led to the publication of a report, European Fire Costs – The Wasteful Statistical Gap, which formed the basis for a contribution by Mr Wilmot to a pilot study on fire statistics initiated by a United Nations Working Party in 1981. Subsequently Mr Wilmot, with the support of The Geneva Association, founded the World Fire Statistics Centre to carry forward this work within a more structured organisational framework.

The objects of the Centre are concerned not so much with academic research but with the practical problem of reducing fire waste. The main focus of its work, the collection, analysis and dissemination of internationally comparable fire cost statistics, is thus seen very much as a means to an end: persuading governments to adopt coherent fire strategies aimed at reducing national fire costs. ​