A slew of natural catastrophes in the past couple of months might put the recovery in German property-casualty (P/C) insurers’ underwriting profitability on hold this year, said Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services in its report published today
“A Cluster Of Natural Catastrophe Claims Could Put Underwriting Profitability In German Property-Casualty Insurance On Pause,” on RatingsDirect.
The combined toll of three significant natural catastrophe events since June will likely halt underwriting profitability and potentially push the sector’s average gross combined ratio toward 100% or even beyond in 2013.
The June flood and late July hailstorms are among the highest insured losses ever experienced for these types of natural catastrophes in Germany.
Still, this year’s claims events should prompt further rate increases that will bolster the P/C sector’s underwriting profitability in 2014-2015. We are maintaining our stable outlook for the German P/C sector and our view that domestic insurers face low industry and country risk. German P/C insurers that Standard & Poor’s rates are generally strongly capitalized and able to absorb the losses from the recent natural catastrophe events, in our view.
