New Zealand earthquake insured loss estimate from Swiss Re

Swiss Re, the global reinsurer, have issued a press release detailing their estimated claims cost from the Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake on 22nd February. The final insured loss won’t be known for some time and the final impact on reinsurance rates in New Zealand is yet to become clear, although likely to rise.

Swiss Re have estimated their own insured loss from this earthquake at approximately $800m, net of retrocession and before tax. They say that with this estimate for their own losses in mind they believe the industry insured loss to be somewhere between $6 billion to $12 billion.

Validus Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda based insurer and reinsurer, has said that it estimates the industry loss to be between $6 billion to $7.5 billion.

It’s unlikely we’ll see any consensus on how big the final loss will be until more claims have come in over the coming weeks. We believe that given the level of damage incurred that it is likely to be around US$10 billion.

We’ll continue to update you as more updates emerge. Read our previous coverage on the New Zealand earthquake.