Sumitomo Marine & Fire Insurance Co. and Mitsui Marine & Fire Insurance Co. merged Monday to create the nation's third-biggest nonlife insurer.

Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. has combined assets of 7.16 trillion yen and a net premium income of 599.4 billion yen. The new firm has 90,000 policy sales agencies, the largest number in the country.

Mitsui Sumitomo President Hiroyuki Uemura, formerly of Sumitomo Marine, said at a ceremony to commemorate the integration, "The merger gives us strong power, although we are confronting severe times.