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Suncorp provides update on natural hazard costs

NCR Suncorp's Steve Johnson

Suncorp recently released an update to the Australian Stock Exchange in relation to the recent environmental events. Here is an overview of the statement.

Suncorp has declared two storm events since the start of 2H20. Hailstorms in the South East states of Australia that impacted parts of Victoria, the ACT and NSW from 19 to 20 January 2020 and heavy rain in South East Queensland and NSW from 17 to 18 January 2020. As at 28 January, Suncorp had received over 25,000 claims in relation to the hailstorms and in excess of 1,400 claims in relation to the heavy rain. These events are expected to continue to develop over coming weeks as claims are lodged and processed.

Suncorp Group CEO Steve Johnston said: “This has been an unprecedented start to the bushfire and storm season in Australia. At a time when the industry is responding to multiple large events, Suncorp’s focus is on making the claims process as simple and efficient as possible with customers making good use of our online claims lodgement facility. We continue to mobilise our Customer Support Teams on the ground where they’re needed the most and we have also increased the capacity of our contact centres to manage the increased volume of calls from our customers across the east coast. We’ve also ramped up our repair network to start the assessing and rebuilding process.”

Suncorp’s expectations of these natural hazard costs remain unchanged at $519m. Since the start of 2H20, Suncorp has declared three natural hazard events:

  • The Vic/NSW/Tas bushfires. A cost of $145m was recognised in 1H20 for this event, with a further $75-105m expected to be recognised in 2H20, taking the total estimated gross cost of the event to $220-250m
  • Heavy rain in South East Queensland and NSW from 17 to 18 January,
  • The South Eastern states hailstorms from 19 to 20 January 2020.

The net natural hazard costs for the three events after reinsurance recoveries is expected to be limited to $300m through a combination of protections from the main catastrophe program, recoveries under the drop downs and recoveries under the Natural Hazard Aggregate Protection (NHAP).

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