National Flood Insurance Program

Progress has been made in the mission to reauthorise and reform the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), with H.R. 2874, also known as the 21st Century Flood Reform Act having now passed the House of Representatives with full approval, including amendments by substitution ensuring measures on reinsurance, risk transfer and flood ILS or cat bonds […]

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has started the procurement process for a 2018 flood reinsurance program renewal for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), as it seeks to transition gradually towards a multi-year approach to use of reinsurance coverage.

Property Claim Services (PCS), a division of Verisk Analytics, is to publish aggregate flood loss data supplied by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), starting with hurricane Harvey, in a push to provide a more comprehensive view of national catastrophe losses.

Estimates of losses to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) from hurricanes Harvey and Irma’s flooding are on the rise, leaving the NFIP’s administrators with the difficult task of refunding the Program which is technically bankrupt and all but guaranteeing that the $1.024 billion reinsurance layer will payout.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analysts say they are most concerned about the Bermudian insurance and reinsurance group of companies, in the wake of hurricane Harvey’s impacts, as they feel them to be over-valued and to have too little protection of their own.

The $1.042 billion reinsurance program of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) looks increasingly likely to be a total loss, as estimates continue to suggest that the hurricane Harvey loss to the NFIP is likely to mean the reinsurance program at least triggers, but most likely pays in full.

The insurance and reinsurance industry loss from hurricane Harvey has been estimated at $15.4 billion by catastrophe risk modelling firm Karen Clark & Company, excluding the impacts to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

Hurricane Harvey is expected to result in “extremely complex loss circumstances” making predicting the eventual toll that will be paid by reinsurance capital providers, both traditional and alternative, extremely difficult, according to A.M. Best.

Moody’s Analytics has now increased its estimate for the economic loss caused by hurricane Harvey to as much as $108 billion, reflecting an expectation that the insurance and reinsurance loss will rise further.

Analysts have updated their estimates for the insurance and reinsurance loss caused by hurricane Harvey’s impacts on Texas and the surrounding area, with Morgan Stanley now pegging the industry loss at up to $40 billion including the NFIP portion of flood losses, or up to $25 billion for the private market alone.