Natural disaster insurance claims set to top €92bn

Aleppo in Syria was hit by a devastating earthquake

Claims for weather-related incidents are set to exceed $100bn (€92bn) for the third year in a row, as floods, hail and wildfires linked to climate change become more frequent.

Munich Re has put the total global insured costs of natural catastrophe events in the first half of 2023 at $43bn, while Swiss Re has pegged it at $50bn, according to a report by Bloomberg Intelligence.

More than two-thirds of the insured losses were as a result of severe thunderstorms in the US. The 12-figure threshold is likely to be passed even though just $5bn of the $40bn in damages caused by the year’s most devastating event — the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria and claimed an estimated 58,000 lives — was insured. 

And the full US hurricane season, which lasts until the end of November, has yet to run its course while Swiss Re said earlier this month that it has seen some limited insured losses related to the summer heat waves in Europe and the US, which will be accounted for in the second-half results.

Natural catastrophe insured losses were $125bn in 2022, compared with an average cost of $81bn over the past 10 years and $110bn over the last five. 

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Still, the rise in claims isn’t necessarily bad news for the insurers. Swiss Re’s first-half net income rose as it contained its losses from natural catastrophes and past disasters drove up demand for coverage even as it raised policy prices. 

Bloomberg