Allianz expects €900m flood loss, to recover €500m+ from reinsurance

Global insurer Allianz is anticipating around €900 million of gross losses just from storm Bernd’s impacts in Europe and the related severe flooding that struck the region, with Germany the country worst affected and the source of the majority of the financial impact.

The company anticipates making a significant reinsurance recovery against this loss event, with its excess-of-loss reinsurance tower set to be triggered and more than half of the gross loss burden set to be recovered.

Speaking this morning, Allianz CFO Giulio Terzariol gave some clarity on the expected impacts, saying that the €900 million of losses that has been reported already is solely from the impacts of storm Bernd.

Allianz Deutschland had previously said it expected at least €500 million of claims from the floods in Germany alone.

Storm Bernd struck Central Europe in July and caused most of its damage from flooding caused by a number of major rivers overflowing following extreme rainfall levels.

Allianz’s CFO Terzariol commented on the impacts of storm Bernd this morning, saying, “We assume that we’ll pay out around EUR 900m to our customers only from storm Bernd.”

Given Europe had faced more severe storms and floods in June as well and further storm activity in August, it likely means Allianz is facing a billion Euro plus gross claims burden from recent weeks of storm activity across the continent.

The CFO noted that Allianz tries to help its customers recover quickly from this type of catastrophe, saying that the insurer has made upfront payments of up to EUR 10,000 per customer.

Allianz’z reinsurance panel are now anticipating their own burden, as the company expects that after reinsurance and reinstatement premiums, its net loss from the storm Bernd impacts and flooding will only be around €400 million.

Which means more than €500 million of reinsurance recoveries are anticipated by Allianz after these floods, which is largely anticipated to be from its catastrophe excess-of-loss reinsurance tower.

As we explained earlier this week, European insurer Generali also expects to recover from its reinsurance partners for the recent storm and flood losses in Europe.

In addition, insurer AXA said that it estimates that losses from July’s floods that hit Germany, Belgium, and other parts of Western and Central Europe, will be around EUR 400 million, which it reported before tax and net of expected reinsurance recoveries.

Hannover Re said yesterday it is anticipating a net loss of up to EUR 250 million from the recent severe flooding across Europe and in particular Germany.

While Swiss Re said it expects mid-triple digit millions of losses from the flooding and South African riots.