Fitch Notes Potential Unreported Losses from Sept 11
Tuesday, October 9th, 2001 Catastrophe PropertyBased on preliminary results of its survey of insurance and reinsurance company‘s gross and net loss exposures from the events on Sept. 11, Fitch stated it believes that there could be potentially large unreported losses between the primary insurance and reinsurance markets. According to the rating agency, a majority of such unreported losses will relate to asymmetrical accounting techniques used for finite risk reinsurance contracts, as well as draw downs on equalization reserves by European reinsurers. Such unreported losses could exceed $3-6 billion, per Fitch‘s preliminary estimates. To put this in perspective, total aggregate industry pretax loss estimates continue to range between $30 and $70 billion. To date, Fitch has been able to identify nearly $21 billion in total loss estimates reported by nearly 90 individual insurers and reinsurers.
