At the core is the reality that the global non-life insurance industry’s US$2 trillion in capital won’t last in a “black swan” event, such as a cyberattack or another pandemic, that hobbles the global economy.
Insurance markets for events, travel and business interruption have all been roiled by the virus. For those looking to protect against the possibility of pandemics, most will find that firms are offering few safeguards going forward.

Allianz, Europe’s biggest insurer, said it will focus on tightening up contracts to exclude pandemics. Munich Re has stopped selling business-interruption policies that cover coronavirus losses.

In the first nine months of 2020 the global (re)insurers which Willis Re  track booked $20b of COVID-19 related losses. This remains considerably below the c.$68b mid-point of top-down loss estimates for the global non-life industry. More is coming with Q4 results with, for example, Munich Re announcing on 1 December that it will book an additional c.€1.1b, said the report. 

A number of (re)insurers have included a significant Incurred But Not Reported (IBNR) component in their booked losses due to considerable uncertainty around ultimate COVID-19 losses. This uncertainty is due in part to pending legal rulings, particularly in relation to business interruption (BI) covers, which will decide if and how COVID-19 related claims should be covered.