Snapshot: Chile’s 5 biggest fire insurers

Chile’s P&C insurance industry faces a busy and complex 2020 amid a rise in claims stemming from the unrest that erupted in mid-October. 

Across the country, commercial properties, from car dealerships and banks to retailers, small family-run stores and warehouses, have been vandalized and, in some cases, looted and then set on fire.  

Insured losses could total billions of dollars.

Emilio Sahurie, lead partner at Chilean law firm Sahurie & Asociados, recently summed up the situation: “The insurance industry has seen a significant increase in claims filed by individuals and businesses, which will be complicated to analyze and may potentially lead to disputes, since categorizing the riots and applying this to the coverage terms in the policy is required.”

A question mark hangs over the implications for the industry in terms of reinsurance coverage, as reinsurers may reassess their future pricing and exposure strategies.

At the end of September, 33 insurers were participating in the country’s P&C sphere. A new player, Portugal’s Fidelidade, a unit of Chinese investment group Fosun, is entering the fray this month.

In January-September, Chile’s P&C insurers saw direct premiums expand 6.5% year-on-year in real terms to US$2.87bn. 

The bulk of direct premiums, US$1.18bn, or 41.3% of the total, corresponded to industry, infrastructure and commerce. Within this market segment, the single biggest risk covered was property damage, accounting for US$550mn.

And the biggest lines, by direct premiums, under the banner of property damage insurance were motorized vehicles (31.2%), earthquake (18.3%), fire (10.9%) and theft (3.8%). Terrorism insurance accounted for 0.5%.

Overall profits posted by Chile’s P&C insurers for January-September contracted to 75.1bn pesos (US$98.6mn) from 77.9bn pesos in the same period of 2018, financial services watchdog CMF said in a report.

CHILE’S FIVE BIGGEST STANDARD FIRE INSURERS

In terms of direct premiums corresponding to standard fire insurance, the total was 6.676mn UF (inflation-index unit, about US$241mn) for January-September, up 32.6% year-on-year, according to data from Chile’s association of insurers AACh.

No. 1

The biggest standard fire insurer was Southbridge, reporting 1.562mn UF in direct premiums for the period.

No. 2

Liberty reported 1.068mn UF.

No. 3

Suramericana reported 761,120 UF.

No. 4

Chilena Consolidada posted 558,188 UF

No. 5

Mapfre posted 546,337 UF