Swiss property-casualty insurance giant Chubb, which has operations in Greater Hartford, says it expects to incur a record catastrophe loss in its second quarter financial results, most of it due to COVID-19.
Chubb said last week that it anticipates reporting a $1.81 billion pre-tax catastrophe loss when it releases its second quarter earnings later this month. Of that number, $1.37 billion is due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moody’s analysts wrote this week that the coronavirus loss is the largest of any single catastrophe for Chubb since the company was acquired by ACE in 2016 for $29.5 billion. The next largest catastrophe loss for Chubb was Hurricane Irma in 2017, which cost $880 million, Moody’s said.
“Chubb’s coronavirus catastrophe losses are likely higher compared to many U.S. P&C insurers because of Chubb’s business mix, which includes significant premiums for event cancelation insurance, professional liability including financial lines, travel insurance products and specialty lines such as surety, political risk and trade credit insurance,” analysts wrote.
Some of the COVID-19 loss is due to business interruption insurance claims, which have generally not been covered in the U.S. Moody’s said the claims are likely from policyholders in other countries, or related to certain policies that specifically cover pandemic claims.
Moody’s said Chubb’s second-quarter catastrophe loss will be partially offset by recovering investment losses.
Although Chubb’s catastrophe losses for second-quarter 2020 are significant, we expect that they will be partially offset by recovering investment losses.