Coronavirus Takes Its Toll On Insurers’ Q1 Results

With the pandemic only now becoming a litigious one as businesses line up to sue insurance companies for not paying out on business interruption claims, it might seem that insurers wouldn’t be impacted financially by the health crisis at this stage.

However, as Q1 results start trickling in, it’s becoming evident that some insurers’ first figures for 2020 have been overshadowed by the coronavirus outbreak.

For example, reinsurance giant Swiss Re reported a group net loss of $225 million, thanks to COVID-19 as well as a pre-tax charge of $476 million for its property and casualty business.

Meanwhile, Argo Group warned before its Q1 release that it expected to report pre-tax net catastrophe losses of $29 million, including approximately $26 million related to the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly due to contingency and property exposures in the group’s international operations and property exposures in its US operations.

And the losses get bigger, with Markel Corporation posting a comprehensive loss to shareholders of $1.4 billion, which marks a significant drop from the comprehensive income of $732.2 million it reported in the same period last year.