Specialist insurance and reinsurance firm Hiscox Ltd. has estimated its net loss from hurricane Harvey’s impacts at around $150 million.
Hiscox has based its hurricane Harvey loss estimate on an industry wide loss of $25 billion excluding the NFIP.
The company said that this fell within its modelled range of claims for a hurricane of this size and with this level of impact, and importantly said that its reinsurance protections “remain substantially intact.”
That’s important as Hiscox will be needing its reinsurance for hurricane Irma as well.
Hiscox said it has two main areas of exposure to Harvey, through its reinsurance business and through primary insurance lines, including provision of flood coverage to homeowners and businesses.
Hiscox Group CEO, Bronek Masojada, commented; “Insurance exists to help individuals and companies recover from the devastation caused by events like this, and our priority is to pay claims quickly so that they can do that. At the same time, Harvey has also highlighted the lack of flood cover for large parts of the US market.
“2017 will be an expensive year for natural catastrophes but the industry can cope. Insurance remains a cyclical business and after a long period of price reductions, insurance rates in the affected areas and in specific sectors such as large property are likely to increase. In the wider global insurance market for large risks, we expect rates to stabilise and begin to increase.”
The company said it will announce an estimate of net claims caused by Hurricane Irma once the impact of that hurricane has become clearer.
