flooding

Recent severe inland flooding across the United States, including the Kentucky floods that have devastated many communities, are not expected to result in losses that would trouble the National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP) reinsurance or catastrophe bonds.

The impacts of climate change could drive the economic costs of flooding in the United Kingdom some 42% higher by 2050, according to analysis by specialist flood risk modeller JBA.

Perhaps not an unexpected conclusion from a study on global flood risk, but the latest update to insurance and reinsurance broking group parent Marsh McLennan’s Flood Risk Index shows a dramatic increase in values-at-risk of flooding is possible with climate change.

The Chinese government via its regulator has urged its insurance and reinsurance industry to focus on developing new products for disaster risk transfer and to help in covering more of the natural catastrophe risk in the country, given the current evident protection gap that exists.

The recent severe flooding in China’s Henan province is expected to result in the largest catastrophe insured losses in history for the country, clearly demonstrating the need for more reinsurance protection, as well as faster roll-out of primary covers.

Catastrophe risk modeller AIR Worldwide is in close agreement with the German insurers association, in saying that it expects the insurance and reinsurance market will face close to EUR 5 billion of losses from flooding that hit the country recently.

German insurance association, the GDV, has raised its estimate of insurance market losses for damage from the recent flooding event to between EUR 4.5 billion and EUR 5.5 billion.

The recent severe flooding in China’s Henan province is expected to suppress underwriting margins for the China non-life insurance and reinsurance industry in 2021, with total industry losses expected to exceed US $1.25 billion, according to Fitch Ratings.

Economic losses from the recent severe flooding across Europe is likely to exceed US $10 billion according to insurance and reinsurance broker Aon, a figure we expect will end up being eclipsed once all the losses are counted across the impacted regions.

China’s province of Henan has been hit by what is being termed a 1-in-1000 year flood event, after a year’s worth of rainfall fell in just three days. But the insurance and reinsurance market claims impact may be most severe on the auto side, rather than property claims, while supply-chain disruption could also be a […]