Legal historians identify suretyship with situations that are quite outside the modern connotations of the term. For example, they use the term when describing how the family and other social groups have been made to assume collective responsibility for the offenses of their members. Another ancient example is more consistent with the modern concept: the situation in which the surety (person) was delivered over as a hostage to the custody of the claimant and to imprisonment and servitude upon the default of the principal.
In modern times suretyship—or guaranty—has come to be undertaken by business corporations organized for that purpose. These firms usually sell bonds wherein they undertake to pay money for embezzlement by public and private officers and employees, bonds relating to criminal prosecutions, and bonds to secure the faithful performance of contracts. In this respect they resemble insurance companies.
The beneficial rights of these companies are about the same in civil- and common-law jurisdictions. Unless specifically stipulated away, they arise even in the absence of an express contract provision. They include the right of reimbursement, or the right to recover any loss from the one who defaulted on the obligation; the right of subrogation, or the right to the benefit of all securities that the creditor received from the debtor; and the remedy of exoneration, or the right to require the debtor to pay his creditor or to fulfill his promises.