insurance

Two of Australia’s largest insurers have both slashed their reserve provisions for business interruption claims from the COVID-19 pandemic after last week’s test case ruling.

Florida’s property insurer of last resort Citizens Property Insurance Corporation said Friday that it is now estimating a hurricane Ian claim-count of around 100,000, down dramatically from its earlier assessment of a burden of over 225,000 claims being anticipated.

A capacity crunch in property catastrophe reinsurance is becoming “ever more likely” according to analysts at Peel Hunt, but importantly they highlight that even at the estimates for the level of industry losses it will cause, hurricane Ian should still fall within the sectors risk appetite.

Barry Gilway, the CEO of Florida’s property insurer of last resort Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, told analysts at KBW that his current best-estimate for the insurance industry loss from hurricane Ian is just $40 billion.

The second test case in the High Court of Australia regarding the interpretation of policy wordings in business interruption policies after the COVID-19 pandemic, has been resolved in favour of insurers after appeals were denied, a move that has positive implications for the release of some trapped ILS capital, we’re told.

Based on the information available at this time, an analysis of Florida insurance carriers rated by Demotech suggests that they may all be able to contain losses from hurricane Ian within their reinsurance towers, according to President and Co-Founder Joseph Petrelli.

During a panel discussion at the ILS Bermuda Convergence 2022 event yesterday, Michael Millette told the audience that while the quantum of loss matters after hurricane Ian, with such a range of estimates, the risk is that cedents will all seek to trap capital as if the industry impact is going to be $70 billion […]

Hurricane Ian will prove to be a “trial by fire” for the legislative reforms enacted in Florida to improve the situation in its insurance marketplace, and today there were questions about whether those reforms are enough among speakers at the ILS Bermuda Convergence 2022 event.

The Progressive Corporation has reported an expectation of recovering around $1.2 billion from its property reinsurance arrangements, to help it pay for an estimated $1.4 billion of gross property claims from hurricane Ian.

Florida headquartered, nationally expansive U.S. property casualty insurer, Heritage Insurance Holdings, Inc., has said that it expects its hurricane Ian losses will fall within the second-layer of its reinsurance tower, which covers it up to $960 million of losses.