system with added functionality over time. History Individual surety bonds represent the original form of suretyship. The earliest known record of a contract of suretyship is a Mesopotamian tablet written around 2750 BC. Evidence of individual surety bonds exists in the Code of Hammurabi and in Babylon, Persia, Assyria, Rome, Carthage, among the ancient Hebrews, and (later) in England. The Code of Hammurabi, written around 1790 BC, provides the earliest surviving known mention of suretyship in a written legal code. Suretyship was not always accomplished through the execution of a bond. Frankpledge, for example, was a system of joint suretyship prevalent in Medieval England which did not rely upon the execution of bonds. The first corporate surety, the Guarantee Society of London (whose insurance business ultimately merged into Aviva), dates from 1840. In 1865, the Fidelity Insurance Company became the first US corporate surety company, but the venture soon failed. In 1894 congress passed the Heard Act which required surety bonds on all federally funded projects. In 1908 the Surety Association of America, now the Surety & Fidelity Association of America (SFAA), was formed to regulate the industry, promote public understanding of and confidence in the surety industry, and to provide a forum for the discussion of problems of common interest to its members. SFAA is a licensed rating or advisory organization in all states and is designated by state insurance departments as a statistical agent for the reporting of fidelity and surety experience. The SFAA is a trade association consisting of companies that collectively write the majority of surety and fidelity bonds in the United States. Then in 1935 the Miller Act was passed, replacing the Heard Act. The Miller Act is the current federal law mandating the use of surety bonds on federally funded projects. See also Co-signing Demand guarantee Estreat Fidelity bond Fiduciary Guarantee Indemnity Insurance Lien waiver Loan guarantee Negotiable Instrument Penal bond Performance bond Personal guarantee Shop drawing Submittals (construction) Testator References External links Sureties Legal terminology