The cost of catastrophe-related claims for the second quarter of 2023 is estimated at $421 million by Intact Financial Corporation. The insurer announced this through a press release on July 10th. Out of this total, $252M of the costs are related to personal insurance, and $169M to commercial insurance.
The majority of this bill is linked to losses in Canada, which accounted for an estimated amount of $335M, with $252M attributed to personal insurance. Nearly half of the losses in Canada are attributable to wildfires, particularly those that occurred in the Atlantic provinces, notably in Nova Scotia.
"Among other notable losses, we can mention the ice storm and spring flooding in Quebec," adds the insurer.
According to Charles Brindamour, CEO of Intact Financial Corporation, this highly active catastrophe season serves as a reminder of the growing impact of climate change on wildfires and severe weather conditions.
In the fourth quarter of 2022
This is the second time in 2023 that Intact has issued such a press release regarding the estimated cost of catastrophe-related losses. On January 12th, the insurer announced costs of $143M applicable to its fourth-quarter 2022 results.
Around $77M was associated with the Canadian market, with $64M in commercial insurance. The cost was primarily due to windstorms in late 2022 in the eastern part of the country, as well as the evolution of losses earlier in the year.
For the UK and international markets, where the cost of losses was estimated at $66M in the same fourth quarter of 2022, the bill was mainly attributed to an extended period of severe cold in December, which led to pipe breaks in homes.
