winter storm

February’s deep freeze and winter storm catastrophe event looks set to drive a property catastrophe reinsurance market loss of somewhere in a range from $10 billion to $12 billion, Leadenhall Capital Partners CEO Luca Albertini believes.

US primary insurer Allstate has revealed a significant approximately $1.3 billion gross loss from the winter storms and severe winter freeze, primarily impacting Texas, which it warns mean its aggregate reinsurance will trigger, which is provided by its Sanders Re catastrophe bonds.

The Progressive Corporation has revealed that its losses from the recent winter storms in the United States drove a $40 million reinsurance recovery for the firm, after claims exceeded its occurrence retention.

German reinsurance giant Munich Re said that it is expecting its losses from the recent US winter storm and extreme freezing weather event to be in the mid hundreds of millions of Euros.

Insurance and reinsurance industry catastrophe claims are likely running around 34% above the 10-year average for the year-to-date thanks to the significant contribution from US winter storms and freezing weather, according to analysts at Jefferies.

Bermuda headquartered ILS fund and investment manager ILS Capital Management, has said that it expects that industry losses suffered from the recent winter storms and Arctic blast in the United States will drive renewal rates higher at the mid-year and also further into 2022.

The intensity of extreme cold events such as the recent US winter storms and Arctic deep freeze may become more volatile as the climate changes, Aon has warned, saying that the February loss event will be a record.

The size of the estimated winter storm insurance and reinsurance market loss from February’s severe Arctic freeze and the issues suffered by energy organisation the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. (ERCOT) has raised speculation over the chances of subrogation becoming a possibility for carriers.

Insurance and reinsurance market losses from winter storm Uri and related severe winter weather in the United States may become another factor in the availability of alternative capital, given the loss will highlight the risk of catastrophes being unmodelled and perhaps heighten climate change concerns, S&P has warned.

The complexities surrounding the development of an ultimate of insurance and reinsurance market losses from the recent US winter storm event are set to be significant, with broker Aon warning to expect a prolonged period of loss creep.