Secondary cat perils – anything but secondary

Ahead of this year's conference season and reinsurance renewal discussions, Mohit Pande, Swiss Re's CUO Property discusses the extreme weather events we've seen this year, loss estimates for the tragic Hawaii wildfires and what the re/insurance industry is doing to tackle natural catastrophes.

Natural catastrophes caused USD 50 billion in global insured losses in the first half of 2023, the second highest since 2011. Once again, secondary perils – natural catastrophes such as thunderstorms, floods and wildfires that can happen relatively frequently and typically generate low- to medium-sized losses – dominated headlines with wildfires in the northern hemisphere and thunderstorms in the US.