Notice - Bermuda (Re)insurers Expect to Pay a Significant Portion of the California Wildfire Losses (2025-05-01)

Summary

This is a BMA press release, not a rule or directive. It reports findings from the Authority's US Data Claims Survey on Bermuda based (re)insurers' expected exposure to the January 2025 Southern California wildfires, based on data collected from 119 responding companies in March 2025.

• Loss estimate: Bermuda (re)insurers estimate gross claim losses of almost US$10 billion in payments to US policyholders and cedants for the California wildfires.
• Market context: Total economic losses are estimated at US$250 to US$275 billion, with industry insured losses of at least US$30 billion, meaning Bermuda (re)insurers may bear up to 30% of insured losses.
• Historical comparison: The notice compares this to Bermuda's share of past catastrophe losses, including 30% of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria (2017), 30% of Hurricane Ida and 20% of Winter Storm Uri (2021), 25% of Hurricane Ian (2022), and 20% and 15% of Hurricanes Helene and Milton respectively (2024).
• Data scope caveat: The survey data excludes exposure covered by most insurers in Bermuda's Insurance Linked Securities (ILS) sector, meaning actual losses could be higher.

The release contains commentary from BMA's CEO and Deputy Managing Director on Bermuda's role in global risk capacity and the protection gap, but it does not impose any new requirement, filing obligation, or deadline on regulated entities.

Applies to

Bermuda (re)insurers