catastrophe

According to the California Department of Insurance, the insurance industry has paid $6.94 billion in residential and commercial claims to consumers in Southern California, related to the Los Angeles wildfires, as of February 5th, 2025.

Insurance industry losses for the flooding related to the remnants of Hurricane Debby that affected Ontario and Quebec between August 9th and 10th, 2024, is estimated to have reached CAD 2.817 billion, according to CatIQ, Canada’s insured loss and exposure indices provider.

US primary insurer Travelers has announced its preliminary estimate of catastrophe losses from the Los Angeles, California wildfires at $1.7 billion before-tax ($1.3 billion after-tax) and the company says these figures are net of reinsurance recoveries.

Hannover Re’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Jean-Jacques Henchoz, has said that an industry loss ranging between $30 billion and $40 billion from the Los Angeles, California wildfires, could result in a net loss of €500 million to €700 million for the German reinsurer, which is above its first-quarter large loss budget of €435 million.

Re/insurance broking giant Aon has announced the launch of a new parametric insurance solution that is designed to address and mitigate losses from hurricane-related storm surge along the coast of the United States, developed in partnership with Floodbase, a specialist in parametric flood risk, and global commercial insurer, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions.

Based on preliminary insured loss estimates, the reinsurance sector and its capital providers are expected to assume at least 30% of total insured losses from the Palisades and Eaton wildfires in Los Angeles, according to analysts at Moody’s.

Analysts at Fitch Ratings have said that any realised catastrophe bond losses from the Los Angeles wildfires are expected to be small, however these are not anticipated to impede cat bond market issuance.

In a new update on the Los Angeles and Southern California wildfires, Evercore ISI analysts have said they believe that losses from the event are unlikely to change the trajectory of reinsurance pricing, which the firm anticipates will still be down 10% to 20% at the mid-year renewals.

Having now published the results of its Climate Biennial Exploratory Scenario (CBES), looking at the financial risks posed by climate change for the largest banks and insurers operating in the UK, the Bank of England believes that over-time climate risks could become a persistent drag on earnings.

As the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) publishes a new set of proposed rules on climate risk disclosure, it’s becoming increasingly clear regulating for climate risk reporting is going to drive risk management and risk transfer spend, with ramifications and opportunity for insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS).