ID :
170058
Tue, 03/22/2011 - 18:35
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/170058
The shortlink copeid
Quake insurance payments could top 1 tril. yen
TOKYO, March 22 Kyodo - Earthquake insurance payments resulting from the massive quake that struck northeastern Japan could top 1 trillion yen, far higher than the previous record of 78.3 billion yen following the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, according to some industry estimates released by Tuesday.
''Payments will not fall into arrears'' as the government is required to cover part of the insurance payments under Japan's quake insurance system, which is jointly run by the government and nonlife insurers, a General Insurance Association of Japan official said.
Eqecat Inc., a U.S. risk assessment agency, projected upcoming insurance payments at between 650 billion yen and 1.2 trillion yen, while Goldman Sachs estimated they could reach up to 861 billion yen.
The proportion of quake insurance policyholders stood at around 7 percent at the time of the Hanshin quake, resulting in about 65,000 cases of insurance payments.
But as the proportion rose to 23 percent as of the end March 2010, the number of the payments this time could climb to several hundreds of thousands, according to the estimates.
Moreover, the maximum amount of coverage for a building in the event of a quake was raised to 50 million yen from 10 million yen in 1996.
Under the quake insurance system, the insurers would be obliged to pay up to 115 billion yen in total. Any liabilities above the threshold would be evenly shared by the government and insurers.
The government and insurers built up a reserve of 2.3 trillion yen as of March 31, 2010. As long as the combined payments do not top the reserve, the government will not be required to channel additional fiscal resources into the reserve.
''Payments will not fall into arrears'' as the government is required to cover part of the insurance payments under Japan's quake insurance system, which is jointly run by the government and nonlife insurers, a General Insurance Association of Japan official said.
Eqecat Inc., a U.S. risk assessment agency, projected upcoming insurance payments at between 650 billion yen and 1.2 trillion yen, while Goldman Sachs estimated they could reach up to 861 billion yen.
The proportion of quake insurance policyholders stood at around 7 percent at the time of the Hanshin quake, resulting in about 65,000 cases of insurance payments.
But as the proportion rose to 23 percent as of the end March 2010, the number of the payments this time could climb to several hundreds of thousands, according to the estimates.
Moreover, the maximum amount of coverage for a building in the event of a quake was raised to 50 million yen from 10 million yen in 1996.
Under the quake insurance system, the insurers would be obliged to pay up to 115 billion yen in total. Any liabilities above the threshold would be evenly shared by the government and insurers.
The government and insurers built up a reserve of 2.3 trillion yen as of March 31, 2010. As long as the combined payments do not top the reserve, the government will not be required to channel additional fiscal resources into the reserve.
