Insurance

Tropical storm Harvey had not stopped raining on Texas before the first estimates emerged as to how many billions of dollars in damages would result from the storm. Initial estimates from insurance companies like Hannover Re put the number at $3 billion. In a note to clients, JP Morgan estimated that the insurance industry could lose $10 to 20 billion from Harvey, making it one of the top 10 costliest hurricanes to hit the U.S. Enki Holdings, a consultancy that calculates the risks and costs of various natural disasters, said Monday afternoon that its estimates for Harvey damages had reached $30 billion.

Reinsurance firm Swiss Re has given a preliminary estimate for global economic and insured losses from natural and man-made disasters of just $23 billion for the first-half of 2017, which is down 36% on the prior year and 30% below average. Economic losses are estimated at just $44 billion, down from $117 billion in H1 2016.

It’s another signal that reinsurance pricing is set to remain under pressure, as insured losses from catastrophes, man-made incidents and severe weather events come in well below (30%) the 10-year average of $33 billion meaning reinsurance capital levels will remain abundant.

Swiss Life on Wednesday posted a larger-than-expected rise in half-year profit despite trimming back business in its core life insurance operations. Insurer Group reported that its first-half net profit increased 5% from last year to 524 million Swiss francs.

Swiss Life said net profit rose 5 percent to 524 million Swiss francs ($538.8 million), ahead of expectations for 514 million francs in a Reuters poll of eight analysts.

Zurich Insurance posted a 21 percent rise in second-quarter net earnings as the group made strides in enacting a turnaround plan set out last year.
The Swiss insurer’s net profit for April through June rose to $896 million, beating even the highest estimate in Reuters poll of analysts that on average expected $790 million.

Global insurance premiums increased by 3.1% in real terms in 2016, a fairly solid outcome in an environment of moderate global economic growth, Swiss Re Institute’s latest sigma report says.

The main cause of the weaker global premium development were the advanced economies but growth in many emerging markets – excluding China – slowed also.

Global life premium growth fell to 2.5% in 2016 from 4.4% in 2015 as advanced market premiums contracted, while life premiums in the emerging regions together grew by more than double the long-term average.

Zurich Insurance Group referred its profit fell from a year earlier in the first quarter, but added that an improved economic outlook could help the company’s prospects for the rest of the year.

The Swiss insurer said net income fell to $607 million in the first quarter from $875 million a year earlier. A more than 3 percent change to Britain’s Ogden rate, a tool for calculating personal injury and accident claims, dampened Zurich’s core property and casualty business in the first three months of 2017.

Swiss Life had a «good start» to the year 2017, with fee revenue of 340 million Swiss francs, an increase of 5% compared with the same period a year ago. Premiums dropped 1% to 6.5 billion francs, the company said in a statement today. Five analysts polled by Reuters had on average expected gross premiums to fall 1.3 percent to 6.595 billion francs.
"Swiss Life has made a good start to the year," Chief Financial Officer Thomas Buess said in a statement. "We also managed to increase fee income and assets under management in the first quarter of 2017. That shows we are continuing our progress toward implementing our group-wide program ‘Swiss Life 2018’."

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