“COVID-19 will be the biggest loss disaster the industry has ever seen,” said insurer AIG CEO Brian Duperreault.
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US insurer AIG said Monday that the Covid-19 pandemic is shaping up to be the biggest catastrophe the insurance industry has ever faced, a crisis that cost it hundreds of millions of dollars in the first quarter. .
“The Covid-19 will be the biggest loss disaster the industry has ever seen,” said CEO Brian Duperreault, in a statement.
This health crisis, which has forced thousands of American businesses to close with tens of millions of unemployed people, “has created significant uncertainties and it will take time to understand all the ramifications”, added the director .
As a result, AIG has suspended its financial forecast for the whole of 2020 even though the company claims to have the backbone to weather this crisis.
In the first quarter, the first American insurer had to set aside $ 419 million, including $ 272 million to cover insurance policies related to Covid-19, including those relating to travel, employee compensation and bond markets .
Insurers face pressures on several fronts: the possibility of a global economic recession and the risk of bankruptcy in many economic sectors – airlines, supermarket chains – could affect insurance policies in terms of credit.
Many SMEs affected by containment and social distancing applied around the world to limit the spread of Covid-19 ask their insurer to cover the shortfall.
Pending an estimate of the damage, AIG said it had posted net earnings of $ 1.74 billion in the first quarter, a result inflated by a tax credit gain of $ 3.5 billion.
Excluding this exceptional tax gain, AIG earned only $ 99 million, compared to $ 1.39 billion in the first three months of 2019.
Reported per share, benchmark in North America, the profit is 11 cents, lower than the 72 cents expected on average by financial analysts.
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