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Expansion and IPO
MetLife made several business acquisitions during the 1990s, including a merger with Mutual Life Insurance Company, the only African-American life insurer in New York, in 1992. The merger with Mutual Life brought 30,000 new policyholders under MetLife's coverage.

Additionally, in a process that began in 1992, MetLife acquired Executive Life's single premium deferred annuity business, which was worth approximately $1.2 billion. MetLife also acquired the firm's life insurance business, valued at about $260 million. In addition to these acquisitions, MetLife purchased New England Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1995 and acquired Security First Group in 1997 for $377 million.

MetLife experienced rapid growth during the late 1990s and into the 2000s. The company became the fifth largest individual disability insurance company in the United States in 1999, following its acquisition of Lincoln National Corporation. Also in 1999, MetLife bought out reinsurance provider GenAmerica Corporation for $1.2 billion, as well as its subsidiaries, Reinsurance Group of America and Conning Corporation. That year, the company had grown to serve 7 million policyholders.

MetLife named Robert H. Benmosche as chairman and CEO in July 1999. Benmosche occupied the position until 2006, when he was replaced by C. Robert Henrikson.

After announcing in 1998 that it planned to go public during the next two years, in 2000, the company followed through on the plan. The IPO was valued at $6.5 billion, the largest IPO to that date in U.S. financial history. MetLife policyholders were asked to choose a cash or stock stake. This IPO made MetLife the most widely owned stock in the United States, and it raised MetLife's value to over $4 billion. By 2000, MetLife's reported number of policyholders had risen to 11 million, and that year it had become the United States' number one life insurer, surpassing Prudential, according to The New York Times.

In December 2000, MetLife announced a $470 million voice and data network management deal with AT&T Solutions. In February 2001, MetLife became the first insurance company to purchase a nationally chartered bank, when it acquired Grand Bank of Kingston, New Jersey. The company began offering banking services through the newly named MetLife Bank, including checking and savings accounts and online banking.

Current era
In 2004, MetLife continued to hold its position as the largest life insurer in the United States, according to The San Francisco Gate. The company had $2.5 trillion in policies written, $350 billion in assets under management, over 12 million customers in the United States, 8 million customers outside the United States, and a net income in 2003 of $2.2 billion. That year, Barron's reported that 13 million American households owned at least one product from MetLife. In 2005, the company acquired Citigroup’s Travelers Life & Annuity and all of Citigroup’s international insurance businesses for $11.8 billion.

The following year, MetLife opened its joint-venture insurance company in Shanghai, in May 2006. Also in 2006, it sold Peter Cooper Village, or Stuyvesant Town, the largest apartment complexes in New York City at the time, for $5.4 billion. MetLife had developed the apartment complexes between 1945 and 1947, to house veterans returning home from serving in World War II.

The company's sales grew 11.5% between 2008 and 2009, despite the national recession. The company continued to grow through acquisition, as AIG sold Alico Health Insurance to MetLife in 2010 for $15.5 billion. In 2011, CEO Robert Henrikson was replaced by Steven A. Kandarian, a former private-equity executive.

In September 2014, the U.S. government observed the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law by proposing the application of an official label to MetLife as "systemically important" to the American economy. If implemented, MetLife would be subject to different sets of rules and regulations, with increased oversight from the Federal Reserve. The company appealed this proposal in November 2014. In December 2014, federal regulators decided that MetLife required the special regulations reserved for financial companies and organizations deemed "systemically important," or "too big to fail". Other companies already designated as "systemically important" included AIG, General Electric and Prudential. MetLife announced in January 2015 that it would file a lawsuit against the District of Columbia to overturn the federal regulators' decision.

In 2015, MetLife was ranked as number one on Fortune magazine's list of World's Most Admired Companies in the Insurance: Life and Health category.