Suncorp said that, after the heavy rainfall and flooding across NSW, South East Queensland and Victoria, it had received just over 7600 claims across all three states by 12pm on March 30.
Claim numbers are expected to rise further as customers gain access to affected regions and the extent of damage becomes clear, it said.
Around three-quarters of claims are from NSW, with around 20 per cent from Queensland and the balance from Victoria and the ACT. The severity of claims varies significantly between regions.
Suncorp estimates net claims costs in relation to this event will be $230 million – 250 million.
Suncorp expects the majority of claims to be attributed to a single event across all three states for reinsurance purposes. The costs of this event will be capped at $250 million under the group’s main catastrophe program.
Suncorp said it has a comprehensive reinsurance program in place that provides strong protection for the remainder of the financial year.
The full limits remain available on all the group’s main catastrophe program and dropdown aggregate reinsurance covers.
In addition to eroding the deductibles on the dropdown aggregate covers, this event will further erode the deductible on the Group’s Aggregate Excess of Loss (AXL) protection.
The AXL provides $400 million of cover in excess of a retention of $650 million with an event deductible of $5 million. As at 28 February 2021, $370 million of the AXL deductible had been eroded.