European windstorm Andrea insured loss estimate increases again

The latest property market insured loss estimate for European windstorm Andrea has been published today by PERILS AG, the independent Zurich-based company providing industry-wide European catastrophe insurance data and loss indices. Back in April PERILS issued their second loss estimate for European windstorm Andrea at €309m, up from their first estimate in February of €267m. Now the loss estimate for Andrea has risen again to €337m as claims data from insurers in Europe is collected by PERILS.

European windstorm Andrea hit western Europe on the 4th and 5th of January 2012, impacting Germany, UK, France, Benelux and Switzerland. With this third loss report for windstorm Andrea PERILS loss data is now available by CRESTA zone and property line of business.

It’s clear that Andrea was the European windstorm event with the highest losses in the last season now. The insured loss estimate has risen by €70m since the first estimate was published by PERILS. It’s still a small storm though by European windstorm standards as these events can create multi-billion Euro insured losses at their most extreme.

At this stage it remains unlikely that Andrea will trouble any exposed catastrophe bond deals unless there are aggregate deals out there that the storm qualifies for (we don’t believe there are). We still haven’t seen any ratings warnings on European windstorm exposed cat bonds and would have by now if there was any threat to them. Given the size of the loss estimate this windstorm event will hit the reinsurance market but it’s unlikely that any industry-loss warranties would be affected as they generally have higher industry-loss triggers.

A fourth loss estimate for Andrea will be published by PERILS on the 4th January 2013.