flood

Natural disasters will likely become more frequent in Brazil and more expensive in terms of loss of human lives and financial expenditure by the government to rebuild and support those without insurance. Frequency of natural disaster in Brazil is on the rise, according to this Business News Americas article quoting a Swiss Re exec, with […]

Insured losses from the flooding in Queensland, Australia have resulted in US$3.9 billion in claims so far according to the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA). The organisation revealed figures today showing that the insurance industry had assessed over 118,000 claims valued at AU$3.6 billion (US$3.9 billion).

The future of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has been in the balance for some time. There have been repeated calls from reinsurance industry figures and also some politicians to end the public subsidised  NFIP and to allow the private reinsurance and risk transfer markets to step in.

We wrote last week that the insured loss estimates for the recent Queensland, Australia floods, combined with the flooding in December in Australia were now being touted as around $6 billion. Now, Business Insurance reports that a Barclays Capital analyst has suggested they could top $6 billion (particularly likely now the flooding has moved south) […]

Damage and insured loss estimates for the flooding in Queensland, Australia are varying wildly as people attempt to quantify the enormity of the disaster that has struck. Our article yesterday which discussed S&P’s bulletin that said losses to insurers would exceed A$1 billion looks like a major underestimate as more recent announcements have raised loss […]

Standard & Poor’s have issued a bulletin saying that losses from the flooding being experienced in Queensland, Australia could end up costing the re/insurance industry over A$1 billion. Despite the potential high losses S&P says that ratings on Australia’s major general insurers remain unaffected so far.

The year hasn’t started well for residents of Australia’s Queensland state as rainfall has continued to increase river levels and the flooding they have been suffering from for weeks has now reached a point where it is going to cause huge losses and devastation. Flash flooding from thunderstorms continues to affect the area and the […]

Lately there has been a call from some industry figures to end the U.S. subsidised, public National Flood Insurance Programme and to privatise flood insurance to allow private reinsurers and the capital markets to provide risk transfer solutions instead.

Flooding is a real problem in Canada. The insurance industry reacted to this problem in the past by making it impossible for Canadian homeowners to purchase overland flood insurance for their properties. Instead they have to rely on government assistance programs after flood events.

The Association of British Insurers report which they commissioned to look into climate change, the financial risks associated with it and how the insurance industry will cope has now been published. The report was produced by AIR Worldwide and the UK Met Office.