Resting Under Protection

Insurance industry says impact on profitability will be small despite more than Rs.



10 billion in tsunami related claims saying that they are adequately covered by reinsurance.















Insurance industry says impact on profitability will be small despite more than Rs. 10 billion in tsunami related claims saying that they are adequately covered by reinsurance. However some in the industry say profitability will be affected somewhat but they can still show underwriting profits in their general insurance business.

Despite the competition local insurance companies have underwriting profits.

Two weeks after the tidal wave disaster insurers have started paying client claims.

Few insurance policies included earthquake cover and nobody offered cover for tsunamis, however most re-insurers are going by the first cause of the disaster, an earthquake.

"As far as property damage is concerned there is consensus among the re-insurers of the region that the tsunami is caused by an earthquake and if a policy had an earthquake cover the insurer and the re-insurer had a liability to pay," says Damien Fernando, Director, Sri Lanka Insurance (SLI).

"By December 28th we got confirmation fro