Zurich Financial Services has said that it could face nearly $295m in claims related to the severe weather-related events, that hit the US in April and May of this year.
Swiss insurer said the estimated amount for Zurich’s commercial and global corporate businesses in North America is $200m and its wholly-owned subsidiary Farmers Re with $95m.
The insurer said the estimate is net of reinsurance and before tax and will be recorded in the half-year results of this year.
The losses resulted from multiple tornadoes and hail storms, primarily in the Midwest and Southeast regions in the US during the months of April and May, Zurich Financial said.
Zurich CEO Martin Senn said that Zurich is committed to delivering against its customer promise. In these extreme circumstances the local teams have successfully maintained Zurich’s and Farmers’ high level of customer claims service and helped those affected with exemplary and continued dedication.
Recently, Allstate, a personal lines insurer, expects the May catastrophic pre-tax losses to be $600m for the month of May 2011, in addition to its April estimated loss of $1.4bn.
Disaster-modeling firm AIR Worldwide has estimated that the total insured losses could be between $4bn to $7bn from the recent catastrophic losses in US.