disaster

Reinsurance firm Swiss Re has estimated the total economic losses from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters in 2013 at $130 billion, resulting in a $44 billion insured loss toll for the global insurance and reinsurance industry.

The Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Pilot, a disaster insurance facility which provides parametric insurance cover for tropical cyclone (typhoon) and earthquake, including tsunami, risks to a group of Pacific Islands, has renewed from November and added one new island member.

A report released today by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers states that as the world’s population shifts towards urban population centres, the growing numbers of people living in cities and urban landscapes increases the world’s susceptibility to natural disasters.

Willis Re, the reinsurance intermediary arm of global insurance broker Willis Group, has put an estimate of $4.74 billion (€3.5 billion) on the insured loss toll from a number of severe hail storms which struck Europe between 17th June and the 6th August.

The government of Taiwan is being urged to purchase insurance protection against natural disasters and catastrophe events, such as earthquakes and typhoons which affect Taiwan every year, as a way to lower the burden of reconstruction on public money.

Reinsurance firm Swiss Re has estimated the impact of recent hailstorms in Germany and outs the industry-wide insured loss total at between $2 billion and $2.7 billion, while its own loss burden is estimated at $240 million, net of retrocession and before tax.

French reinsurer SCOR has suggested that the insurance industry loss from recent catastrophic hail storms in Germany could reach as much as EUR3 billion. That is significantly higher than earlier estimates from risk modellers who put the loss at up to EUR1.5 billion.

Severe weather in Germany is again impacting insurers and reinsurers in 2013, as two severe hailstorm events in the country look set to create up to $2 billion of losses for insurers. Hail once again proves itself as a major cause of losses for the insurance and reinsurance industry.

Reinsurance firm Swiss Re’s sigma unit, which analyses and quantifies economic and insured losses from natural and man-made catastrophe events in its reports, has put an estimate on global catastrophe losses from the first-half of 2013 at $56 billion of economic losses and over $20 billion of insured losses.

The United States saw 11 weather and climate disaster events which each caused losses exceeding $1 billion in 2012, according to data from the NOAA. That makes 2012 the second most costly year in terms of economic damages since 1980, with a total of more than $110 billion of damages over the course of the […]