2011 ranks behind 2005 as second-most expensive year for insurance industry: Swiss Re

This year will go on record as the most expensive year for the global insurance industry, second only to 2005, according to Swiss Re’s sigma records.

Given roughly $108 billion in insured catastrophe losses in 2011, this year is thus far just shy of 2005’s record of $123 billion in insured catastrophe losses.

Year 2005 saw hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Rita cause more than $100 billion in claims, Swiss Re remarks.

“If Japan had been as well insured as other countries with high seismic risk, such as New Zealand, the overall industry tally would have been much higher,” according to Swiss Re’s Sigma – preliminary estimates for 2011: natural catastrophes and man-made disasters caused economic losses of USD 350 billion and cost insurers USD 108 billion.

Additional claims from the ongoing massive floods in Thailand or from winter storms, which may still hit Europe, have the potential to bring figures for the full year even closer to the record claims of $123 billion experienced in 2005.

This year’s preliminary estimates are more than double the total figure of $48 billion from 2010.