European reinsurers will bear brunt of one of biggest quakes

Lancashire Holdings has said it has exposures to risks in Chile, including onshore energy, property retrocession, property direct and facultative and property catastrophe.

It said it was “premature to estimate the extent of any potential losses likely to be incurred from claims arising from the recent earthquake and aftershocks that struck Chile or the resulting impact on first quarter results, reinstatement premiums or market pricing.”

Dow Jones reports that reinsurers in Europe could bear upwards of three-quarters of insured losses from the Chilean earthquake, which could be one of the costliest quakes in history.

Top five

"It's certainly going to be in the top five, though it won't be number one," Insurance Information Institute President Robert Hartwig said.

According to U.K.-based AXCO Insurance Information Services reinsurers assumed 74.6% of earthquake coverage in Chile as of 2007,

Among the country's biggest reinsurers, counting intragroup reinsurance, are Switzerland's Zurich Financial Services, Mapfre Re and Royal & SunAlliance Seguros Chile.

Topics