Munich Re and Swiss Re have doubled their forecasts of the costs of last week's terrorist attacks in the US.
Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurer, said pre-tax profits could be cut by as much as Euro2.1bn (£1.33bn) which would push profits below those in 2000. On September 13 it had said that it expected claims from the World Trade Center (WTC) attack to be about Euro1bn (£633m).
The Germany-based company said its revision reflected extensive damage to buildings surrounding the WTC.
Swiss Re raised its estimate for the WTC losses from SFr1.2bn (£513.5m), released last week, to about SFr2bn (£855.9m). This corresponds to approximately two thirds of last year's annual profit.
