earthquake

A second modelled insurance industry loss estimate for the damaging earthquake that struck Japan on New Year’s day has now been released, with CoreLogic saying it believes the total will be below $5 billion.

Insurance industry losses from the January 1st magnitude 7.5 earthquake that struck the Noto peninsula on Japan’s west coast could reach $6.4 billion, with residential property seen as the major contributor, according to risk modelling firm Karen Clark & Company (KCC).

The damaging magnitude 7.5 earthquake that struck Japan’s Ishikawa prefecture on the west coast of the main island of Honshu on New Year’s Day could affect the April reinsurance renewal outcome for Japanese insurers, if the excess layers of reinsurance programs are impacted, rating agency AM Best has said.

Catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment manager Twelve Capital has said in an update that it does not currently anticipate any direct losses due to the major earthquake in Japan to any positions it holds.

The magnitude 7.5 earthquake that struck in Ishikawa prefecture on the west coast of the Japanese main island of Honshu yesterday, is not expected to have an immediate catastrophe bond market impact, Plenum Investments has said.

Japan has started the new year with a damaging magnitude 7.6 earthquake that hit the Noto peninsula region of Ishikawa prefecture today, with widespread reports of damage, the first major tsunami warning since 2011 and thousands of people evacuated from the coast.

The North African country of Morocco is reeling after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck to the south of Marrakesh on Friday night, with more than 2,000 deaths now reported, the USGS forecasts that the economic impact could be as significant as 8% of GDP.

The global insurance and reinsurance industry could face in the region of $130 billion to as much as $150 billion of losses if a really severe earthquake strikes the Tokyo region of Japan, according to Swiss Re.

The insurance and reinsurance market industry loss estimate for the Kahramanmaras Earthquake Sequence that struck Turkey in February 2023 has been raised a further 7% by PERILS, to reach TRY 92.8 billion, which would have been US $4.9 billion at exchange rates when the disaster struck.

The fact capacity and capital was tight in the catastrophe bond market at the time of the issuance of the $350 million of IBRD – Chile 2023 cat bond notes drove the World Bank team to look to traditional re/insurers and the issuance of simultaneous catastrophe swaps, resulting in much stronger execution for Chile.