The Hong Kong Federation of Insurers (HKFI) today (1 August 2019) released 2nd round statistics on claims incurred by the calamitous Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018 (Table 1). These statistics were collected from 54 insurance companies accounting for around 80% of the market share.

Table 1: Claims incurred by Mangkhut (山竹) as of 16 March 2019

“Typhoon Mangkhut struck Hong Kong on 16 September 2018 and caused severe damage to the city. The total amount of claims exceeded the figure we first collected until November 2018 by $200 million and reached HK$3.1 billion. On the other hand, the actual number of claims experienced a slight drop to 30,203,” said Mr Eric Hui, Chairman of the General Insurance Council of the HKFI.

We are more concerned about the safety of public when typhoon battered the city. In view of the rising concerns towards catastrophic losses and their impacts on our community, the GIC collected 2nd round claims data for all lines of business being affected by Typhoon Mangkhut and provided a more holistic picture.

“In the second round of data collection, close to 74% of the total claims, i.e. over HK$2.26 billion, was incurred by property damages. The enormous amount in claims duly reflects the vital social function being performed continuously by the insurance industry in mitigating the economic burden and retaining social stability against natural disasters,” said Mr Clement Hau, Chairman of the HKFI’s Fire Insurance Association. “We are also working closely with other professional associations and Government bodies to study the impact of climate change in order to have better risk forecast and more effective risk mitigation for the good of our society.”