Wildfire

Overall losses during the bushfire season total a record A$1.9bn.

The insurer is not looking to grow its net catastrophe portfolio this year, but thinks reinsurance rates will rise later in 2020 to support increased retro costs.

The Floridian carrier has returned to the cat bond market for a third time, adding wildfire, earthquake and winter storm perils to its latest transaction.

Losses of A$514mn and rising follow in the wake of costly bushfires.

The Insurance Council of Australia lifted its claims tally by 27 percent from its initial figure, with aggregate deductibles the main reinsurance exposure to the loss.

The storms will compound wildfire losses and put reinsurers on Suncorp's aggregate covers on watch.

Quota share and aggregate-property cat contracts are under watch as a result of the recent Australian bushfires but occurrence covers will probably remain mostly unscathed, sources expect.

The exposure to this transaction across private ILS strategies varies from 1.7 percent to 1.9 percent of November's portfolio, the manager said.

Claims from the catastrophe have increased to 13,750 up from 10,550 at the end of last week, the ICA told local media

As more claims emerge from the December-January fires, aggregate reinsurance contracts will be exposed to rising losses.

Natural hazard losses have put the carrier’s aggregate reinsurance covers closer to triggering.

The reinsurer pegged 2019 cat losses at $52bn, in line with long-term averages but 40 percent lower than 2018.