Corso Inglese – Italy Needs Compulsory Earthquake Insurance
PESCARA – Since I have lived in Italy, which is about twenty years, I have made several futile attempts to acquire earthquake insurance for my Italian home.
The reason most of the “reputable” insurance companies have denied my claim for earthquake insurance is that it is too “risky.”
The powerful earthquake that struck central Italy on Wednesday with a magnitude of 6.2 and killed at least 290 people will not generate heavy losses for insurance companies, raising again the question of compulsory insurance in one of Europe’s most disaster-impacted countries, experts said.
The level of property and casualty cover taken out by Italians is among the lowest of the industrialized countries. In 2014, insurance as a proportion of gross domestic product in the country was 1.9 percent, according to data compiled by Swiss Re AG. That compares with 3.3 percent in France, 3.4 percent in Germany and 8.1 percent in the Netherlands, separate data from PricewaterhouseCoopers show.
The government has yet to give an estimate of damages but Infrastructure Minister Graziano Delrio said on Friday he did not think costs would reach the 14 billion euros ($16 billion) earmarked to cover reconstruction work following the quake that devastated the nearby city of L’Aquila in 2009.
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“There is little higher value property in the towns and villages affected … which will limit insurance losses, as residential properties are generally uninsured for earthquake,” said Robert Muir-Wood, chief research officer at risk modelling specialist RMS.
Industry association ANIA estimates less than 1 percent of 33 million homes have private quake coverage. It also says that two-thirds of Italy’s municipalities are in earthquake zones.
The exposure of Italy’s biggest insurer Assicurazioni Generali, which saw claims of more than 100 million euros after the L’Aquila quake, could be around 20 million euros, a source said.
Rival UnipolSai has said its exposure was limited.
On Friday Fitch Ratings said Italian insurers would feel limited impact with claims estimated at 100 million to 200 million euros.
According to the national engineers association, Rome has had to set aside around 120 billion euros since 1968 to cover damages in seven big earthquakes.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has pledged to rebuild the houses shattered by the quake and renew efforts to bolster Italy’s flimsy defenses against earthquakes.
False Political Promises
Compulsory insurance schemes were discussed by the government of the then prime minister, Mario Monti, in 2012 and the Renzi administration has also recently studied the idea.
Nothing concrete regarding home insurance policies covering earthquake damage has ever happened on the political end as costs and complexity were weighed in.
Many of the most vulnerable municipalities are far from the big cities and home mainly to legions of elderly Italians living on minimal pensions who could ill afford to take out insurance.
Another problem is that around two thirds of properties in quake zones have no anti-seismic protection, ANIA says. Heavily indebted Italy has precious little room to offer tax breaks and enticements to the private sector to bring buildings up to proper safety standards.
Italy’s employers association Confindustria has estimated it would cost some 360 billion euros to upgrade building stock.
“I’ve been in this business for 30 years and they’ve been talking about it as long as I can remember. What’s lacking is the political will,” said Luca Franzi, president of insurance broker association AIBA. ($1 = 0.8857 euros)
(News sources: Reuters, Bloomberg, Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica and Ansa)
