Industry
The financial fallout from the worst hurricane season on record may result in rising premiums for protection and private medical insurance products.
Analysts believe that the overall clean-up and reconstruction effort will cost the US government more than $200bn, and reinsurers may be in for profound losses too.
Swiss Re has estimated that the insured loss from Hurricane Katrina alone could be as much as $40bn, while Munich Re has calculated its personal losses for Katrina and Rita to be in the region of $782m.
Insurers are growing jittery over the potential impact of such claims on premiums globally. With reinsurer capacity tied up in buffering providers on the other side of the Atlantic, premiums may start to creep up across the UK insurance sector as reinsurers seek to insulate themselves.
"I think reinsurers are probably in pretty good shape, so we should be unlikely to see any dramatic rises," said Matt Rann, group underwriter for individual protection at Scottish Equitable Protect. "We should also remember that a lot of places in the region may not have been insured at all, and that properties in hurricane zones are most likely unable to get large sums assured."
A spokesperson for Scottish Widows disagreed, however, warning that dismissing the possibility of rising premiums would be unwise: "Possibly we could see these huge claims putting upward pressure on premiums and downward pressure on maximum cover levels. If it does happen we will not begin to see the increases for another 12-18 months."
So far this year there have been a record 22 named storms, with the hurricane season not due to end until the end of November.
