Wednesday, October 18, 2017

"California wildfires could cost re/insurers $4.6bn & rising: Moody’s"

It's going to be much more than that.
6000+ structures at even $100k average per gets you to $6 bil.

A couple days ago Artemis named the biggest exposures:
Farmers Insurance, State Farm, Liberty, Allstate, Travelers, Nationwide Mutual, Chubb, AIG, Tokio Marine, National General, Allianz and QBE, are all among the top property insurers in the state of California, so likely to share the bulk of these losses....
Here's the latest from Artemis, October 18:
The Northern California wildfires that started on Sunday, October 8th, could drive insurance industry losses of $4.6 billion or higher, adding further pressure to the profitability of the property & casualty (P&C) industry following an active third-quarter, says Moody’s.

The fires broke out on October 8th, and spread rapidly with the help of high winds, low humidity, high temperatures and dry conditions, claiming 40 lives as it tore through Northern parts of the state, as of Saturday.

The number of structures reportedly damaged and historical fire data suggests the insured loss total for the California wildfires will be in the billions of dollars, says Moody’s, providing an initial loss estimate of around $4.6 billion, which it feels could rise.

The figure is based on reports from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) that 5,700 homes and commercial structures had been destroyed by the fires, as of Saturday, to which Moody’s then applies an average insured loss per structure of $802,000 (which is based on historical Cali wildfire loss estimates).

Moody’s says that using the above estimations and data, suggests “losses would be close to $4.6 billion and growing as the fire continues.”

For the re/insurance and possibly insurance-linked securities (ILS) markets the wildfires will likely drive additional pressure to 2017 profits, after extremely costly events in the third-quarter, namely hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, and the Mexico earthquakes, drove increased catastrophe losses for companies....

...MUCH MORE