flood

Ratings agency A.M. Best has suggested that the recent severe flooding in Thailand could result in insured losses of as much as $20 billion once the final extent of the damage is understood. Industry estimates now range from $10 billion to $20 billion and over $4 billion of insurance claims have already been filed. The […]

The floods in Thailand could be the largest loss caused by flooding this decade, according to a representative of Allianz. In this news article, Lutz Fullgraf, Allianz’s CEO for global corporate and specialty in the Asian region, suggested that this will be the largest flood loss for years. We’d offer that it could be the […]

We’ve written a lot about the potential for flood risks to be structured and sold as catastrophe bonds on Artemis. You can read some of our more recent articles on this topic here and here. Still there is no sign in the cat bond pipeline of anyone putting together a flood cat bond but we’re […]

Flooding caused by torrential rainfall across parts of southern France and Italy is likely to become the next big insured loss to hit the re/insurance industry this year. The rainfall was triggered from a rare extratropical storm in the Mediterranean which began as a low pressure system and resulted in an almost hurricane like storm.

Estimates for insured losses stemming from the record breaking flooding being experienced across much of Thailand jumped significantly yesterday as reinsurance broker JLT Re suggested that they could reach as much as $13 billion (according to some reports). This followed an update from the Insurance Commissioners Office in Thailand who only put the figure at […]

We’ve written before suggesting that it may be time for the U.S. government to seek assistance from the private reinsurance and catastrophe bond markets with the significant burden of flooding risk that they assume through the National Flood Insurance Program. It’s thought that the NFIP wouldn’t be able to cope with a major flood catastrophe […]

Northern Thailand is currently facing the worst flooding the country has seen for over 50 years due to a period of torrential rains which have been increasing river levels over the last couple of months. More than 360 people have been killed by the rising floodwaters and much of the north of the country has […]

Floods are the most common natural catastrophe worldwide according to a new paper from insurance and financial services group Allianz. During 2010 the International Disaster Database EM-DAT collected data on approximately 400 natural catastrophes with at least 100 people affected or 10 deaths, of these 182 cases were caused by flooding affecting 179m people worldwide.

Congressional plans for a five-year extension of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) suggest that FEMA may be given the power to transfer some of the risks associated with the flood insurance program to the private reinsurance and risk transfer markets. Currently the NFIP is thought to be able to cope with claims resulting from […]

Frank Nutter, President of the Reinsurance Association of America, has published an opinion piece on the Washington focused website theHill.com. In it he calls again for the National Flood Insurance Program to be reformed and allow the private sector to become the reinsurer and ultimate backstop for the program leaving the taxpayers unburdened.