The insurance and reinsurance industry rose to the occasion after the terrorist attacks in the US last year, the head of French insurer AGF, Jean-Philippe Thierry, said today.
Thierry, who is chief executive of Assurances Generales de France, a unit of German giant Allianz, was presiding over an annual industry meeting, held this year on the anniversary of the industry's most costly claims event ever.
'Despite the number of victims and the exceptional size of the damages, the insurance and reinsurance sector filled its role by paying or making provisions for billions of dollars of compensation and overcame this tragedy,' he said.
Industry experts calculate that attacks caused at least €100 billion worth of damages, about $50 billion of which has been shouldered by insurance companies.
'We have not drawn all the conclusions yet from this event, which has already changed and modified for the future our methods and the equilibrium of our market,' Thierry said. 'But my first conclusion is that one year after, despite initial fears, the insurance and reinsurance sector has risen to the challenge and continued to play its role by functioning effiencently'.
Similarly, the Geneva-based International Association for the Study of Insurance Industry Economics said in a study released yesterday that the global insurance industry was well able to withstand the September 11 attacks despite the fact that it sustained its most expensive and least predictable blow.
