typhoon Hagibis 2019

A handful of insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds invested into collateralised reinsurance positions have experienced some further adverse development related to 2019’s Japanese typhoon Hagibis in June, we understand.

Claims paid by Japanese domestic insurance firms after the impacts of 2019’s typhoon Faxai, typhoon Hagibis and the heavy rainfall event that closely followed these storms have risen by more than 6%, reaching $10.04 billion, according to the General Insurance Association of Japan (GIAJ).

Japanese domestic insurers have now paid out roughly US $9.2 billion in claims related to typhoon Faxai, typhoon Hagibis and the heavy rainfall event that closely followed these storms, which is an increase of 35% on figures released in December by the General Insurance Association of Japan (GIAJ).

According to analysts, loss development from last year’s Japanese typhoon Hagibis is not following the same path as 2018’s Jebi, with the current prognosis being that development is much better than feared.

French reinsurance firm SCOR reported EUR 343 million of natural catastrophe losses in the fourth-quarter of 2019, after taking into account any recoveries from retrocessional reinsurance and before tax, with typhoon Hagibis the main driver.

Global insurance and reinsurance group Everest Re has pre-announced an expectation of a $215 million catastrophe loss hit and a further $50 million hit from its crop reinsurance book in the fourth-quarter of 2019.

Reports from and sources in Japan suggest demand surge is set to be an issue with claims from typhoon Hagibis, as a lack of claims professionals, assessors and loss adjusters has been noted to be slowing the process of insurance claims filing and is expected to inflate claims amounts.

Three tranches of catastrophe bonds exposed to Japanese typhoon wind damage have traded up around 10% in recent weeks, as the market’s view of how large the eventual industry losses from typhoon Jebi and Hagibis will be has moderated somewhat.

U.S. and global primary insurance carrier and reinsurance company Chubb has announced an expected fourth-quarter pre-tax and net of reinsurance hit of $430 million from catastrophe losses and an additional $23 million of losses from U.S. agricultural lines which were hit be weather-related poor growing conditions.

Global reinsurance giant Munich Re’s NatCat service has released estimates for the industry insured losses from Japanese typhoons Hagibis and Faxai, pegging them at $10 billion and $7 billion respectively.