by Lauren Evans
Suncorp (ASX:SUN) has provided an update on the weather impacting NSW and parts of South-East Queensland, as well as confirming natural hazard costs in the 2022 financial year and the placement of its FY23 reinsurance program.
In FY22, the insurance company said that it had dealt with 35 separate events and over 120,000 natural hazard claims, at an expected cost of around $1.1 billion, net of reinsurance recoveries.
This is in line with previous guidance and reflected the prevailing La Niña weather pattern, according to Suncorp.
“Our teams remain focused on supporting customers and communities impacted by these events, including the devastating flooding across South-East Queensland and Northern New South Wales earlier this year,” said chief executive officer Steve Johnston.
“Our teams are in place to receive claims and will move into affected areas when the weather event concludes. Current claims volumes are low but we expect that to increase over coming days.”
Mr Johnston has encouraged all customers with claims from the weekend to lodge them as soon as it was safe to do so.
Meanwhile, the company’s reinsurance placement aims to achieve the optimal balance between the cost of the program and acceptable levels of earnings and capital volatility.
It said that while the overall structure of the program remains similar to prior years, changes have been made to reflect the material hardening of the global reinsurance market following elevated natural hazard activity in recent years.
Suncorp’s maximum event retention has been maintained at $250 million with the upper limit increased from $6.5 billion to $6.8 billion, which covers the home, motor and commercial property portfolios across Australia and New Zealand.
One prepaid reinstatement covers losses up to $6.8 billion and two further prepaid reinstatements cover losses up to $500 million.
Shares are trading 0.6 per cent higher at $11.01.
