SUNCORP AND IAG EXCEED CATASTROPHE BUDGETS

The weekend’s floods in Victoria have taken Australian insurers Suncorp and Insurance Australia Group further over their catastrophe budgets. As of Tuesday, IAG had received around 4,300 claims while SunCorp said it had received approximately 3,750 claims as of Monday. With the storms in Victoria, and attritional peril claim costs in June, IAG estimates its FY21 net natural perils claim costs will be approximately $720m to $743m. This compared to a nat cat allowance of A$658m for this period and previous guidance of $660m to $700m. IAG’s stop-loss protection provides protection of A$100m in excess of A$1.1bn, or A$68m in excess of A$743m, post-quota share. Suncorp said catastrophe losses for the year to date to May 31, 2021, were A$955m, approximately A$40m above the year-to-date allowance of A$915m. Sun Corp said it has a comprehensive reinsurance program in place, and given the group’s remaining covers, the maximum potential loss from the Victoria floods is $50m.