Tsunami waves may have killed more than 21,500 in Asia this past weekend, but U.S. property-casualty insurers are expected to suffer little if any financial damage, analysts said.
Most of the largest U.S. insurance carriers have relatively little exposure to Asia, and those that do lay off much of that risk to reinsurance companies. Beyond the human and economic devastation, analysts said the question will be how much insured damage was caused by the waves.
Prudential Equity Group insurance analyst Jay Gelb, in a note to clients on Monday, said the impact "could be modest" for insurers despite billions of dollars worth of destruction.
"Insured damage could be a fraction of this amount because most of the impacted areas are not heavily insured and it is unclear how much flood damage will be covered," Gelb wrote.
Spokesmen for American International Group, the largest U.S. insurer, insurance broker Marsh Inc., and broker Aon Corp. could not be reached immediately for comment.
Analysts said the biggest exposures to the disaster could be found among reinsurance companies, firms that cover catastrophic losses for insurance carriers. Gelb said storm losses might be borne by RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd., XL Capital Ltd. and Ace Ltd., though the final damages should not be significant.
Ace spokesman Robert Grieves said the Bermuda-based insurer does not comment on claims or exposures. Spokesmen for XL Capital and RenaissanceRe could not be reached immediately for comment.
In early trade, shares of Ace, XL and Arch Capital Group Ltd. were down less than 1 percent
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