Expect a new wave of war and
associated cover flooding the market
THE MOST expensive man-made disaster in history is how the international insurance industry has described the US cataclysm.
And it is a cost that the insurance user will eventually be expected to carry.
The total bill for the terrorist attacks is estimated at more than R130-billion (US$15-bn), although the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) - the insurance industry watchdog in the City of London - warns that it's still too early to quantify the end cost of what is, in insurance parlance, a "catastrophic" insurance claim.
The British insurance industry stands to be a big loser in this gigantic claim.
Lloyd's of London, the world's largest insurance market, has sadly admitted to what it terms "substantial involvement" in insuring United Airlines and American Airlines (owners of the aircraft used as plane-bombs) and the World Trade Centre (WTC).
This is estimated to be as much as R44-bn.
While he would confirm no final figures, Lloyd's chairman Sax Riley said: "The tragic events in the United States have generated the most complex set of insurance liabilities and interdependencies the industry has ever seen."
UK insurance experts warn that an event of this catastrophic nature is likely to see a whole new wave of war, and other associated cover flooding the international insurance market, and for premiums to soar in the wake of such enormous losses.
