Q3 cat losses to lead to price rises for London Market insurers

Catastrophe losses from the recent US hurricanes and Mexican earthquakes will lead to price rises on London Market insurers' loss-affected lines and could also affect wider market pricing trends, Fitch Ratings said in an Oct. 12 statement.

Total industry insured losses from the three major hurricanes, Harvey, Irma, and Maria, could be in the range of $75 billion to $120 billion, according to modelling firm RMS.

Fitch expects 2017 earnings of London Market insurers to be significantly reduced from 2016 due to catastrophe losses and the combined ratio for the Lloyd's market to be significantly above 100 percent. Considerable uncertainty remains around the size of the losses but some insurers have already announced their preliminary estimates.

Lloyd's of London estimated net claims from Harvey and Irma to be around $4.5 billion, while Beazley said the impact of the three hurricanes on 2017 earnings would be around $150 million, equivalent to around half of 2016 earnings.

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