Top insurance groups meeting in Monaco this week still believe terrorism is the number one danger for the industry despite the recent devastation of Hurricane Katrina, which is expected to be the biggest disaster ever covered by the industry.
"Terrorism is the biggest threat today for the world and our industry," said Ron Pressman, managing director of General Electric subsidiary, GE Insurance Solutions.
Reiterating a warning from the OECD this summer about a shortfall in coverage against terrorist attacks, he urged partnerships between the public and private sector to reassure markets that claims from a large-scale assault could be covered by the industry.
In a report in July, the Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation warned that a lack of insurance cover "could be revealed by another large-scale attack", concluding that many companies had been slow to take out terrorism insurance and the industry was struggling with the financial burden of providing coverage.
Four years after the September 11 attacks in the United States, terrorism is the main topic of this year's Rendez Vous de Septembre, an annual meeting here of leaders from the world's biggest insurance and re-insurance companies.
Following the September 11 attacks, estimated to have cost the industry 30-35 billion dollars (27-28 billion euros), countries such as Britain, France, the United States and Germany introduced a government-backed compensation scheme to cover the costs of possible large-scale attacks.
Comments
Comments are closed.