In early 1965, the Malaysian Government conceived the idea of forming a national reinsurance company in order to curtail the ever increasing outflow of reinsurance premium overseas. A feasibility study on the formation of such a company was done in 1971 and on 30 December 1972, Malaysian National Reinsurance Berhad was incorporated under the Companies Act, 1965. It commenced operations on 19 February 1973. Effective 1 April 2005, as part of the restructuring exercise of MNRB Group, the reinsurance business, reinsurance licence and reinsurance assets, up to a net amount of RM400 million, were transferred from Malaysian National Reinsurance Berhad to Malaysian Reinsurance Berhad (Malaysian Re).

Pursuant to the restructuring, Malaysian National Reinsurance Berhad became an investment holding company and was renamed as MNRB Holdings Berhad.