Catastrophe & Restoration

U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein have introduced a bill that would authorize the U.S. Department of the Treasury to guarantee up to $5 billion in bonds available to certified public entities like the California Earthquake Authority following a “mega-catastrophe.”

Commercial property and casualty insurers could take the biggest hit both in losses and credit worthiness from the earthquake in Japan, according to a Moody’s report.

Swiss Re said it expects $1.2 billion in claims from the Japan earthquake and tsunami on March 11, and warned that the estimate is subject to a high degree of uncertainty.

Japan may need five years to rebuild from the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that has caused up to $235 billion of damage, the World Bank said Monday.

Yes, there is a lot wrong with the NFIP system. But I know that no insurance company can or will ever consider writing such adverse risk business without a subsidy.

In the wake of a magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan on March 11, with insured-loss estimates reaching as high as $35 billion, analysts and rating agencies fell on either side of the debate about whether the event will cause a turn in the long-running soft-market cycle.

A new wave of capital into the market, similar to what happened after Hurricane Katrina, is unlikely to occur after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan, as post-Katrina investment returns have not had the desired results, according to analyst firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

A question similar to one that followed the New Zealand earthquake earlier this year now follows the magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake: Will this event be the one to harden rates?