Wildfire

Modelling firm AIR Worldwide has significantly revised its industry loss estimate for the October California wildfires to a range of $8bn to $10.5bn, up from an earlier $2bn-$3bn projection.

Travelers said the Californian wildfires in October are likely to result in losses of $525mn to $675mn pre-tax and net of reinsurance recoveries.

PCS has circulated an initial insured loss estimate of $7.32bn for the recent California wildfires, sister title The Insurance Insider has reported.

Hiscox Re said it was already seeing hardening of rates within property catastrophe reinsurance sector following Q3 losses, as it said loss-affected cat rates could rise 30 percent.

USAA could be set to claim a payout of about $20mn under the class 10 aggregate layer of its Residential Re 2017-1 cat bond following losses from the Californian wildfires and hurricanes Harvey and Irma, sources told Trading Risk.

RMS said that insured losses from the California wildfires should be a similar level to economic damages due to high insurance coverage, as it put total losses at $6bn-$8bn.

The recent wildfires that spread through California will lead to insured losses of $2bn to $3bn, AIR has said.

The California Department of Insurance has estimated insured losses from wildfires in the state at $1.045bn.

Insured losses from the California wildfires have increased to $4.6bn, according to ratings agency Moody's.

The wildfires in California's wine country levelled more homes and businesses over the weekend bringing the death toll to 40, as firefighters said they did not expect full containment of the fire until Friday.

A significant financial cost is expected from at least 15 wildfires that have spread across northern California since 8 October, Aon Benfield's catastrophe modelling arm Impact Forecasting said in its latest cat alert

RMS has hired Pete Dailey as vice president to lead flood model development in its California headquarters