The Kahramanmaras Earthquake Sequence affecting Turkey and Syria which occurred on the 6th of February has been the largest international catastrophe insurance loss to date in 2023 outside of the US, with an industry loss of $5 billion, according to CRESTA.
This information stems from CLIX, the CRESTA Industry Loss Index, which provides industry loss data on international cat events (excluding the US) which have generated industry losses in excess of $1 billion.
CRESTA’s estimate for the Kahramanmaras Earthquake Sequence is somewhat higher than PERILS AG’s $4.4 billion assessment from May, though is in line with CoreLogic’s.
According to CLIX, the earthquakes in Turkey are followed by two events in New Zealand, the North Island Floods of January, which drove industry losses of $1.2 billion, and Cyclone Gabrielle of February 2023, which drove an industry loss of $1.3 billion.
CRESTA notes that the second quarter of 2023 saw devastating floods in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy in May – however, these are unlikely to exceed the CLIX $1 billion reporting threshold.
“More recently, severe convective storm activity between 18-22 June caused hail, water, and wind damage across Western and Central Europe, and the event is currently under investigation and will be reported on in the next quarterly update by CRESTA CLIX,” the firm explained.
Matthias Saenger, Product Manager of CRESTA, commented, “Since 2000, we have recorded 14 earthquake events with an industry loss of above USD 1bn on an ‘as-if-today’ basis, giving a frequency of one event every 1.7 years.
“While such calculations are relatively simplistic, they can help the insurance industry to sense-check the outcome of highly complex Cat models.
“This is just one of the many applications that are possible with access to a systematic and accurate industry loss database.”
He continued, “We hope that the availability of the CLIX Loss List and the quarterly reviews provide the insurance sector with new insights on developments in the Cat arena. Based on the feedback from our subscribers, we believe that our work is of clear value to the industry.”
