European windstorm insured exposures near EUR 65 trillion: PERILS

The PERILS Insurance Exposure Database (IED) for 2022 shows that the largest exposure remains European windstorm with a huge EUR 64.8 trillion of insured values as of January 1st, 2022, up 5.2% on the previous year.

Overall, the PERILS IED 2022 includes detailed information on some USD 85 trillion (approx. EUR 78 trillion) of sums insured exposed to natural perils. Data shows that exposures, as measured by insured property values, have been on the rise, and that European windstorms are a key driver of this.

However, PERILS does note that in USD terms, the sums insured actually represent a 2% year-on-year decline due to the dollar gaining value. Similar growth trends are evident across all other covered markets where growth in national currencies is moderated in USD due to a stronger dollar, explains PERILS.

As our readers will be aware, 2021 was an active year for European windstorms which cost the insurance and reinsurance industry billions of dollars.

The trend has continued this year, with three storms that struck in series over a few days during the month of February driving estimated insured losses of EUR 3.3 billion, according to PERILS, with some estimates going as high as EUR 5 billion.

The latest database from PERILS features up-to-date information about property market sums insured exposed to natural perils in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Indonesia, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

For 2022, the PERILS IED has been produced from the ground-up and is based on information from over two-thirds of the insurance market covered by the data aggregator.

Darryl Pidcock, Head of PERILS Asia-Pacific, commented, “Our exposure and loss data are based on identical sources and methodology. This consistency eliminates basis risk which is key when validating catastrophe models, analyzing the vulnerability of insured assets, or assessing the expected loss costs of industry-loss-based risk transfer products.

“This better understanding of catastrophe risk was PERILS’ mission from day one and our annual IED update released today contributes to that mission.”

Dalida Bachmann, Head of Client Relationship at PERILS, said, “The release of the PERILS IED 2022 forms part of the ongoing evolution of the expanding range of products that we provide. We are currently working to include additional key perils and markets into our data coverage which will be announced later this year.”

Luzi Hitz, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PERILS, added, “The PERILS IED is produced annually from scratch with the latest sums insured data from insurers in each country. This is a major undertaking, and this database represents the considerable efforts of our teams in Zurich, Sydney, and Toronto. However, the compilation of the IED would not be possible without the continued support of our data providing insurance companies to whom we are extremely grateful.”