Insurers and reinsurers must pay all claims arising from US tragedy, according to reports.
Insurers and reinsurers must pay all claims arising from the US terrorism tragedy, according to reports.
The $4.1bn property insurance policy covering the World Trade Centre did not include an explicit terrorism exclusion clause within the contract, a
reinsurer has confirmed.
Contrary to widespread speculation, Hannover Re's chief underwriting officer for North America, Hans Rohlf, told Reactions magazine: "The policy doesn't include any terrorism exclusion, so there will be no grounds for not paying."
US insurance organisations, such as the National Association of
Independent Insurers and the Insurance Information Institute, had warned
companies insured by European insurers and US insurers covered by European reinsurers to look closely at their policies to see if terrorist attacks were excluded.
Rohlf confirmed European reinsurers tried to put a terrorist exclusion
in the World Trade Centre coverage after the bomb attack that damaged it in 1993. However, he says that soft market conditions in the mid-1990s
prevented the industry from insisting on the exclusion.
Hannover Re's detailed information on the terms of the World Trade Centre coverage comes from a facultative property reinsurance coverage proposal it was shown relating to the complex. It had previously disclosed the financial terms of the insurance policy.
The company did not underwrite the submission, but will sustain losses from the aviatio
