Amlin estimates Hurricane Ike market wide loss at over $16b

Amlin Plc have issued their latest estimate of losses sustained from Hurricane’s Ike and Gustav. They expect their own losses from these two storms to be $285m, net of reinsurance and reinstatement premiums. They have also announced their own estimate of market wide losses from Hurricane Ike. They expect Ike to cause in excess of $16b worth of losses, a figure higher than any of the risk modelling agencies estimates. Their reasoning behind this higher figure is the huge geographical area impacted by Ike and the impact to the offshore energy platforms.

The market still awaits the official figures from the Insurance Services Office. It’s now looking likely that the final figure will exceed the $10b level which acts as a loss trigger for a variety of instruments such as IFEX event-linked futures and industry loss warranty contracts.