QBE cats cost $470m so far

QBE has confirmed its estimated large risk and catastrophe claims, which it defines as net claims of $2.5m and above, already total $470m this year compared with $430m for the same period in 2009.

Catastrophe claims include:

• Haiti earthquake
• European windstorm Xynthia
• Chile earthquake
• Melbourne hail storm
• Queensland cyclone Ului
• Perth hail storm
• Transocean oil rig loss
• Iceland volcano travel claims
• Western Australia earthquake a
• US tornadoes

Frank O’Halloran, QBE’s group chief executive officer, said: “Despite the unusual frequency of catastrophes for this year, we still have a significant allowance of around $810m for the remainder of 2010. To put this into perspective, estimated large risk and catastrophe claims for the last eight months of 2009 amounted to a net $485m.”