Verisk warns on $200bn event in the next decade

Annual global insured losses from extreme events will average $133 billion a year going forward, based on modelling by  Verisk—and the industry should brace itself for losses of more than $200 billion every decade, Bill Churney, president of extreme event solutions, told attendees at its pre-Monte Carlo insurance conference in London.

Churney said annual insured losses had remained below the global modelled average over the last decade, but said they had exceeded $100 billion in each of the last three years.

“We should be used to seeing losses of $100 billion a year,” he said, adding that the company’s new global loss projection was $133 billion a year.

He said the primary driver of losses was the increase in exposures, although climate change was a contributing factor.