British insurer RSA sees £25 million in coronavirus claims By Reuters

© Reuters. File photo of a sign of the RSA insurance company outside its office in London

LONDON (Reuters) – British insurer RSA (L:) said it expected its exposure from the coronavirus pandemic to total around 25 million pounds ($30.89 million), with claims coming from travel, wedding and event cancellation insurance.

The home, motor and commercial insurer had received around 25,000 claims on which it would pay out, of which around 23,000 were travel claims, it said in a statement.

There had been little effect from the pandemic on RSA’s first-quarter results, with business operating profit up by double digit percentages, RSA said. Net written premiums totalled 1.5 billion pounds in the first quarter, down 1% from a year earlier.

Best known in Britain for its “More than” brand, RSA also has large operations in Canada, Ireland and Scandinavia.

RSA said last month it would not pay its 2019 final dividend, following pressure from regulators on insurers to protect policyholders and ensure strong levels of capital.

Chief Executive Stephen Hester said RSA was “resilient”.

“We are also very conscious of our shareholder responsibilities, especially with regards to restarting dividend payments when it is prudent to do so.”

The group’s solvency ratio fell to 151% from 168% at end-Dec due to market moves and planned pension contributions, but remained within the insurer’s 130-160% target range.

A level above 100% indicates an insurer has sufficient capital.

RSA is one of several top insurers facing the possibility of multi-million pound lawsuits from small businesses in Britain which allege legitimate business interruption claims have been rejected.

The Financial Conduct Authority said last week it was seeking clarity from the courts to resolve uncertainty over business interruption payments.

“The great majority of business interruption claims are not expected to be eligible under their coverage terms for COVID-19”, RSA said, adding that for claims due to the pandemic in general, “it is expected that some cases will be challenged and may have outcomes the same or different to our expectations”.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*