catastrophe losses

Moody’s RMS Event Response has provided a best estimate for the insurance and reinsurance industry losses from recent hurricane Melissa of $3.5 billion, with a range of between $3 billion and $5 billion anticipated.

Catastrophe modelling firm Karen Clark & Company (KCC) is the latest to issue an estimate for the insurance industry loss from recent major hurricane Melissa, pegging the total at US $2.4 billion.

Hurricane Melissa is only estimated to have caused insured losses in a range from US $1 billion to US $2.5 billion in Jamaica, according to catastrophe modeller Cotality, with the total expected pegged at US $1.5 billion, while the economic impacts are far higher demonstrating the protection gap.

Verisk’s Extreme Event Solutions division estimates that insured industry losses to onshore property in Jamaica from Hurricane Melissa will likely range between $2.2 billion and $4.2 billion.

According to insurance and reinsurance broker Aon, global insured losses from natural catastrophes reached $114 billion after one of the lightest (in loss terms) third-quarters in decades, thanks in part to the quiet hurricane season.

In its Q3 2025 Natural Catastrophe and Climate Report, reinsurance broker Gallagher Re has suggested that despite the manageable nature of catastrophe activity seen this year so far, the industry should continue to expect annual volatility in losses in the future.

According to Moody’s Ratings, issuance of higher expected loss (EL) catastrophe bonds has risen slightly in 2024 and 2025, as pricing for higher-severity risks has declined, encouraging investors to allocate more capacity to higher-frequency exposures.

CatIQ, Canada’s insured loss and exposure index provider, has raised its insurance industry loss estimate from the ice storm that struck Ontario and Quebec between March 28 and 31 to CAD $490 million, an 18% increase from its third loss estimate of CAD $416 million that was issued in July.

Global insured catastrophe losses have now surpassed the $100 billion level in 2025, according to Steve Bowen, Chief Science Officer at reinsurance broker Gallagher Re. But the milestone is no longer the talking point it once was, as the $100 billion figure gets eclipsed year after year.

Catastrophe data aggregator PERILS has now finalised its insurance industry loss estimate for the severe flooding experienced across parts of Central Europe and Italy in September 2024 due to storm Boris, lowering the total by almost 2% to €2.153 billion.