insured losses

New Zealand based primary insurance firm Vero, a subsidiary of the Suncorp Group, expects its “strong reinsurance arrangements” will cover “all expected claims” from the recent earthquake that struck the Kaikoura area.

The recent magnitude 7.8 New Zealand South Island earthquake could end up costing the insurance and reinsurance industry as much as US$3.5 billion, according to risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide.

Reinsurance capital looks set to pay for some of the damage caused by this weeks earthquakes in New Zealand, with local insurers having low deductibles and the EQC likely to call on its program as well, but questions of how many events have occurred could complicate matters, as could supply chain interruption.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck New Zealand on Sunday, late at night local time, causing a tsunami warning and was followed by a number of major aftershocks. The earthquake struck around 95km from Christchurch but shaking has been widely experienced including in Wellington.

IAG New Zealand has extended its reinsurance protection to help it pay for claims from the Canterbury earthquakes again, purchasing a $900m adverse development cover through in internal reinsurance transaction, with the majority of the risk retroceded to third-parties.

The longer-tail nature of some earthquake loss events continues to be demonstrated by the Canterbury, New Zealand disasters, with the Insurance Council reporting that paid insurance losses have now hit $19 billion, up $1 billion since the end of June.

PERILS AG, the provider of industry-wide European catastrophe exposure, industry loss data and indices, has updated the underlying loss model of its Wind-Jeannie tool in advance of the coming 2016/17 European windstorm season.

An increase in catastrophe activity during the first-half of 2016 across the U.S. resulted in insured losses of $13.5 billion, which is 20% higher than the ten-year historical average, according to Property Claim Services (PCS).

The Insurance Council of New Zealand said that private insurance and reinsurance firms have now paid out more than $18 billion to settle commercial and residential claims from the Canterbury earthquakes, but ever since the quakes the magnitude of the loss has been filled with uncertainty.

Economic losses from natural and man-made catastrophe events in the first-half of 2016 totalled an estimated $71 billion, of which $31 billion, or roughly 44% was insured, an increase of 51% compared to the prior year, says reinsurance giant Swiss Re.