Townsville flood loss creep continues, claims still being filed

The slow creep of insurance and reinsurance industry losses from the Townsville area flooding in the Queensland region of Australia earlier this year continues, with the total rising to A$1.247 billion and claims still being filed.

According to the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA), estimated insurance and reinsurance market losses now stand at A$1.247 billion, only a slight increase from its last update but the figure is still rising as new claims are filed.

There have now been 30,396 claims filed with insurers, with another 200 added to the total just in the last month, the ICA explained.

The majority of the claims received are for damage caused to residential buildings, followed by contents and motor vehicle claims.

So far insurers have paid 64% of claims, up from 60% in August, with now A$800 million delivered in claim payments. Three-quarters of the residential property claims are closed and almost 100% of the vehicle claims, the ICA said.

As explained before, some attritional loss did flow into certain insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds and collateralised reinsurance vehicles, particularly quota share investors, due to the Townsville, Australia floods.

It’s unlikely there would be any further impact to reinsurance programs at this time, but the prolonged claims process and continued flow of fresh claims provides further evidence that catastrophe and severe weather losses can continue to creep.

PERILS AG put its estimate of insurance and reinsurance market loss to property lines of business from the Townsville area flooding in the Queensland region of Australia at A$1.217 billion in August, with one final loss report update still to come and which may register a further small rise in the total.