PERILS ups windstorm Christian loss estimate to €1.091B

PERILS AG, the Zurich-based provider of industry-wide European catastrophe insurance exposure, industry loss data and indices, has announced a third and updated loss estimate of €1.091 billion for insured property losses from October’s European windstorm Christian.

PERILS issued its first estimate of industry wide insured property losses caused by European windstorm Christian in December, putting the initial estimate at €994m. In line with PERILS reporting procedures, additional data was gathered on the storm and its insured losses and at the next update in late January PERILS increased its estimate by 7.4% to €1.068 billion.

Now, at the third update of the estimated property insured losses from windstorm Christian (also known as the St Jude storm), PERILS has added another 2.1%, lifting the total estimate of insured market property losses to €1.091 billion.

Windstorm Christian struck western and northern Europe from 27th to 29th October, causing widespread damage across a number of countries. It was the first of a series of strong and damaging windstorms to hit Europe during the winter season.

In line with PERILS reporting procedures, the market loss data from this third loss report is available at a higher level of granularity, with losses per CRESTA zone (two-digit postcode level) and per property line of business.

By providing this level of detail, in combination with gust speed data and PERILS market sums insured both available per CRESTA zone and per property line of business, PERILS believe that the R&D value of the Christian loss footprint is greatly enhanced as it can be used to validate European wind risk models with actual data.

Luzi Hitz, CEO of PERILS, commented on the estimate update; “PERILS represents an international effort by the insurance industry to add transparency and increase data availability in the Cat risk market. Our detailed loss data for windstorm Christian is a prime example of these efforts and will contribute to a better understanding of insured Cat risk,”

Eduard Held, Head of Products, said; “Being able to compare modeled losses and modeled wind vulnerabilities with real CRESTA level data for a Pan-European windstorm event is unique and of significant value to the industry. Having high-resolution industry loss and exposure data is a prerequisite for improving the accuracy of European storm risk assessment.”

Windstorm Christian (27 to 29 October 2013), market-wide insured property losses

PERILS AG explained:

Christian occurred from 27 to 29 October 2013. It moved rapidly from the south of the United Kingdom in a north-easterly direction over the North Sea into Scandinavia. On its path, the storm caused significant losses in the United Kingdom, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden.

PERILS reporting schedule deems that the fourth loss estimate will be provided a year after the date of the event, on 27th October 2014.

Update on all events investigated by PERILS AG from this winter:

	Event name	Event start date	Peril	Status	Estimate
	Ulla	14 Feb 2014	Windstorm	Non-qualifying
	Tini	12 Feb 2014	Windstorm	Qualifying	€245m
	UK Floods	Various – Jan/Feb 2014	Flood	Non-qualifying
	Ruth	08 Feb 2014	Windstorm	Non-qualifying
	Qumaira	06 Feb 2014	Windstorm	Non-qualifying
	Petra	04 Feb 2014	Windstorm	Non-qualifying
	Nadja	31 Jan 2014	Windstorm	Non-qualifying
	Christina	05 Jan 2014	Windstorm	Non-qualifying
	Anne	02 Jan 2014	Windstorm	Non-qualifying
	Gerhard	01 Jan 2014	Windstorm	Non-qualifying
	Felix	30 Dec 2013	Windstorm	Non-qualifying
	Erich	26 Dec 2013	Windstorm	Non-qualifying
	Dirk	23 Dec 2013	Windstorm	Qualifying	€352 million
	Bernd	18 Dec 2013	Windstorm	Non-qualifying
	Xaver	05 Dec 2013	Windstorm	Qualifying	€727 million
	Christian	27 Oct 2013	Windstorm	Qualifying	€1.091 billion