catastrophe losses

AM Best and reinsurance broker Gallagher Re have suggested that the areas in and around Spokane, Washington will suffer considerable insured losses from the ongoing wildfires, with Gallagher Re indicating that it has the potential to be a billion-dollar insured loss event, and could become the costliest insured wildfire event in Washington’s history.

CatIQ, Canada’s insured loss and exposure indices provider, has published a final insurance industry loss estimate of CAD $3.34 billion for the severe hailstorm that struck Calgary, Alberta Canada on August 5th, 2024.

Last week’s magnitude 6.8 earthquake that struck near Kumamoto City on Japan’s Kyushu Island on July 28th is estimated likely to cause insurance industry losses of between US $1.4 billion to US $2.1 billion by data and analytics specialist Verisk.

Industry losses from the recent magnitude 6.8 earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture are expected to be relatively lower than the devastating 2016 Kumamoto quakes, which caused US $53 billion in economic and $7.7 billion in insured losses, according to broking group Aon.

A substantial severe weather outbreak in the Midwest of the United States this week is seen as having the potential to result in a top-10 severe weather insurance industry loss event, which would imply the cost could be around $5 billion or higher to the market, according to broker Aon.

Reinsurance firm Munich Re has estimated that global insured losses from natural catastrophe events reached US $44 billion in the first-half of 2026, below long-term averages, and a notable decline from last year’s $80 billion. 

Twelve Securis has reported that it does not expect any significant loss impact to the cat bond market from yesterday’s Kumamoto, Japan earthquake, while an assessment of its private ILS positions also does not suggest any material impact.

After yesterday’s magnitude 6.8 earthquake in the Kumamoto prefecture of Japan a number of specialist insurance-linked securities investment managers have commented, with all analysis seen so far indicating this is currently viewed as unlikely to be a loss event of particular note for the catastrophe bond and ILS market.

CatIQ, Canada’s insured loss and exposure indices provider, has published a final insurance industry loss estimate of CAD $1.30 billion from the wildfires that impacted the Municipality of Jasper and Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada between July 22nd and August 17th, 2024.

Insured losses from catastrophe events across the globe in the first half of 2026 are estimated to have reached $47 billion, significantly down on last year’s $100 billion, with severe convective storms (SCS) including hail, damaging straight-line winds and tornadoes, remaining the costliest insured peril on a global basis, according to broker Aon.