Catastrophic Losses: Pandemic Costs Ongoing And Unpredictable

The final total is far from known for the insurance and reinsurance industry in terms of the cost of the pandemic crisis, but it is expected to be one of the most expensive event price tags in history.

A new report published by reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter points to record costs. The pandemic is particularly dangerous because of two primary factors.

The first is that it comes with ongoing potential for causing unexpected and unpredictable loss impacts. The second is that it will likely be a most expensive event in the form of one of the slowest developing disasters insurers have ever seen.

This sets the industry up for a lengthy uncertain period, said the GC Capital Ideas report published on June 24, 2020.

An examination of the catastrophe losses that have already been tallied for 2020 so far, on top of the typical catastrophe claims that would usually be expected for the second half of the year, the report suggested that the current fiscal year are likely to reach $100 billion at the very least. This would be only the fourth time in history that level has been reached.