The latest reports from the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) suggest that insured costs from flooding in Australia’s Queensland and New South Wales areas have risen further, with industry losses now estimated at $2.11 billion.
At the same time, the ICA has released an industry loss estimate of $346.7 million for Cyclone Seroja, which hit parts of Western Australia last April.
ICA data shows that insurers have now received 140,754 claims related to the recent floods, which represents a 3.7% increase on yesterday’s figures.
Analysts have warned that reinsurers are likely to assume the majority of the losses from this flood event, with many insurers already highlighting their maximum retentions and others saying they expect to make recoveries.
As regards Cyclone Seroja, the ICA says that it has logged 9,273 claims as of February 22nd, 2022, with 99.44% accepted and 83.75% of 6,394 personal claims closed.
In light of the floods, some MP’s in the country are calling for the expansion of the cyclone reinsurance scheme to cover fires and floods.
The scheme, which is backed by a $10 billion government guarantee, looks to protect more than 500,000 properties in the path of cyclones and cyclone-related flooding in the country’s north.
The graph above shows that the majority of claims from the flooding originate from Queensland, although the difference this region and New South Wales continues to shrink with each day’s updated data from the ICA.
Primary insurer IAG has received around 24,000 claims alone across its brands for the recent floods and storms, including approximately 3,500 claims from the widespread flooding which has occurred across Sydney over the last three days.
As a result, the company has utilised approximately $95 million of the $236 million of aggregate cover following this event (post-quota share).
