Moody’s flags up insurers facing Dorian impact in vulnerable US states

As Hurricane Dorian continues to threaten the southeast US coast, a credit ratings firm has identified the primary insurers that could be most affected.

Moody’s assessed insurers based on their homeowners and commercial property market shares in 2018 for four of the most exposed states: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

It highlighted Citizens, the homeowners’ and commercial property insurer, which had 100 percent of premium concentrations in these four states in 2018.

Commercial property insurer United Property & Casualty also had a high premium concentration, 86.3 percent, in these states, while Assurant had a 24.6 percent concentration. Other commercial property insurers on Moody’s top 10 list that could be affected include Liberty Mutual, Zurich American, AIG and Continenetal Casualty (CNA), ACE American, Nationwide Mutual, and Travelers.

Among homeowners’ insurers, after Citizens, Universal P&C had the largest percentage of premium concentration in the four states with 92.9 percent, followed by FedNat Insurance Co with 86.5 percent premium concentration. Other firms in this area of insurance on the Moody’s top 10 list include United Property & Casualty, United Services Automobile Association (USAA), State Farm, Allstate, Nationwide Mutual, Progressive, and Liberty Mutual.

The agency said that USAA (Aa1 negative), Allstate (A3 stable), Nationwide Mutual (A3 negative) and Liberty Mutual (Baa2 stable) “will likely be less affected since their premium concentration in those states is moderate relative to their total US premiums”.

But it added: “Universal P&C and FedNat generate most of their premiums in Florida, where Dorian will likely inflict limited to modest damage.”

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