Sandy: Insurers could take hit of $10bn

Hurricane Sandy has the potential to cause some of the largest losses the global insurance industry has faced this year, but nothing that would strain insurers financially, aside from hurting earnings this quarter, analysts said.

Disaster modelling company Eqecat, used by the industry to forecast storm exposure, said there was no way to assess what kind of losses Sandy might ultimately cause until after landfall.

But because disaster losses in general have been much smaller this year than last year, financial analysts said insurers were well placed to handle the inevitable claims, even if they exceed last year’s $4.3bn (€3.3bn) in losses from Hurricane Irene.