Earthquakes in Italy cause up to $875M in insured losses: EQECAT

A May 20 earthquake followed by two May 29 aftershock quakes that struck Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region caused an estimated $375 million to $875 million in insured losses, catastrophe modeler EQECAT Inc. said Tuesday. “This loss estimate is particularly sensitive to uncertainty in estimates of exposed values and insurance penetration rates,” said Oakland, Calif.-based EQECAT in its analysis. EQECAT said its estimate was based on assumed insurance penetration rates of about 3% to 5% for commercial lines and less than 1% for residential.