catastrophe

Catastrophe activity during the second-quarter of the year has resulted in the lowest first-half catastrophe insured loss total across the U.S. and Canada since 2010, but the frequency of events is on the rise, according to Property Claims Services (PCS).

Aon Benfield, the reinsurance broking arm of Aon plc, said today that its Impact Forecasting catastrophe model team has determined that first-half 2015 catastrophe insured losses totaled just $15 billion, which is 47% below the ten-year average.

International insurance and reinsurance markets, including alternative risk transfer instruments and insurance-linked securities (ILS), have a vital role to play in ensuring basic human rights for people against the world’s catastrophe risks, according to a recent study.

Global insurance industry catastrophe losses for the first-half of 2015 are some 56% less than the 10-year average ($27 billion) at $12 billion, and insured losses from the U.S. contributed 67%, or roughly $8 billion of the total, according to reinsurer Munich Re.

Economic losses suffered during June from the monsoon season in China led to the largest impact of the month, with almost $4 billion of impact to the Chinese economy, according to Aon Benfield’s Impact Forecasting unit.

The rise in global urbanisation to hazard prone areas, climate change and increased values at risk have sparked a new “era of catastrophes,” signalling an opportunity for the insurance and reinsurance sector to improve the management of extreme risks, according to Professor Howard Kunreuther.

Despite severe winter weather and intense convective storm activity in the U.S. during the first six months of 2015, insurance industry losses from natural disasters and catastrophe events were again below the ten-year (2005-2014) average, according to reinsurer Aon Benfield.

The 2nd Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals has thrown out an appeal related to the contested payout of the Mariah Re Ltd. catastrophe bond, affirming that American Family Mutual Insurance does not have to pay any of the $100m back to reinsurance vehicle Mariah Re.

Insurance and reinsurance remained at the heart of recent discussions on disaster and climate risk reduction and resilience efforts at the United Nations, with regulatory reform highlighted as required to make risk transfer more available.

A further 400 million people in regions of the globe vulnerable to the perils of climate change related hazards are to have access to catastrophe or disaster risk insurance by the year 2020, according to G7 leaders.