The Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA) has commended syndicates in the Lloyd’s of London insurance and reinsurance market for promptly paying claims from hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
LMA chief executive David Gittings commented; “The first response of the Lloyd’s community has been, within days of Irma passing, to pay claims. These are now being settled across the Caribbean and Florida and that effort continues unabated, with claims teams focusing intently on getting the job done.
“Lloyd’s has more than a century of experience in dealing with large-scale catastrophes in the US and elsewhere. In that tradition, claims teams are employing modern crisis-response tools and living up to Lloyd’s reputation for and commitment to paying claims as quickly as possible.
“With Puerto Rico also dazed by the destructive force of hurricane Maria, these events serve as a stark reminder of insurers’ duty and ability to assist insureds in the most devastating circumstances. The LMA will continue to provide all the support it can to our members, to give people on the ground the help they need as quickly as possible.”
At this stage it’s impossible to forecast how much of these losses will fall to the Lloyd’s insurers and reinsurers, but it is likely to be a significant share of losses from the three hurricanes as well as the more recent of the Mexico earthquakes.
Lloyd’s specialty underwriting syndicates are likely to take a large share of the commercial property losses, including floods, from the hurricanes. With excess & surplus lines players likely particularly exposed to Harvey, while those providing reinsurance at Lloyd’s will also get hit hard by all three storms.
The earthquake which damaged Mexico City yesterday morning is likely to also create a reasonably sized loss for some players at Lloyd’s, with reinsurance likely the major source.
Paying claims quickly is vital, but in the case of the recent aggregation of losses there will also be some complexity and many claims could drag on for months, or even years.
