Insurers likely to hike premiums to pay for costs of climate change

Insurers likely to hike premiums to pay for costs of climate change
Insurers are still assessing the damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle. (Image: Getty)
Paul McBeth
New Zealand insurers have strong enough balance sheets to weather the recent storms but will likely have to pass on the rising cost of covering the damage wrought by an increasingly erratic environment. Insurers had been paring back their levels of capital from a peak during the covid-19 pandemic but kept the solvency margins well above the regulatory minimum at 174% in the March 2022 year. That’s in contrast to the Canterbury earthquakes in the early 2010s, which tipped over Western Pacific Insurance and prompted a government bailou...

More Finance

Date set for Eric Watson's bankruptcy hearing
Finance

Date set for Eric Watson's bankruptcy hearing

Former high-flying businessman's whereabouts is unknown.

Riley Kennedy 28 Nov 2023
The economic minefield ahead for the govt
Finance

Cameron Bagrie: The economic minefield ahead for the govt

Winning the election was the easy part, compared to the economic challenges ahead.

Cameron Bagrie 27 Nov 2023
Tower to present risk ratings on sea surge, landslips in coming months
Finance

Tower to present risk ratings on sea surge, landslips in coming months

Insurer has a lot of data and it wants its customers to know.

Paul McBeth 24 Nov 2023