catastrophe losses

Insurance industry losses from the severe hailstorm that struck the Calgary area of Canada on August 5, 2024, are estimated to have reached CAD $3.29 billion, according to CatIQ, Canada’s insured loss and exposure indices provider.

The Swiss Re Institute has estimated that global insured losses from natural catastrophe events reached US $80 billion in the first half of 2025, which is almost double the 10-year average and more than half of the firm’s projected full year figure of $150 billion.

Reinsurance firm Munich Re has estimated that global insured losses from natural catastrophe events reached US $80 billion in the first-half of 2025, a figure some 95% above the 10-year average.

Mercury Insurance has now recovered $20.05 million from its Randolph Re (Series 2024-1) private catastrophe bond transaction, after losses from the January 2025 wildfires in California exceeded the attachment and eroded some of its principal, Artemis has learned.

Catastrophe data aggregator PERILS has increased its insurance industry loss estimate for extratropical windstorm “Éowyn”, a storm that impacted the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Central Belt of Scotland in early 2025, adding 7% to take the estimate to EUR 747 million.

Insurance industry losses from the wildfires that impacted the Municipality of Jasper and Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada between July 22 and August 17, 2024 are estimated to have reached CAD $1.31 billion, according to CatIQ, Canada’s insured loss and exposure indices provider.

Legislation that calls for a Federal Catastrophe Reinsurance Program to be established has been resurrected in the United States Senate, with more support this time around and still a section of the INSURE Act highlighting the importance of capital markets alternatives to reinsurance, such as catastrophe bonds.

Signalling a continuation of more equitable sharing of major loss activity between the insurance and reinsurance tiers of the market, global player Munich Re has cited “very low major-loss expenditure in property-casualty reinsurance” in Q2 2025, leading it to pre-announce a quarterly result that far exceeds the analyst consensus.

US insurer Allstate has announced an estimated pre-tax catastrophe loss burden for the month of June 2025 of $619 million. But the second-quarter 2025 total has now risen to $1.99 billion, which is a relatively heavy start for the annual aggregate year of its catastrophe bonds.

Insured losses from natural catastrophe events around the globe in the first half of 2025 are estimated to have reached $84 billion, 55% higher than the decadal average, and marks the highest H1 total since 2011’s $136 billion, according to a recent report by reinsurance broker Gallagher Re.