Between 25 May and 14 June 2018, hailstorms and heavy rain raged across large areas of France and caused a great deal of damage. These challenging weather events were notable for a number of reasons. Their duration, the extent of the geographical area affected and the extensive range of damage that they caused.
At the beginning of July, insurers in France had recorded 214,000 claims, with an estimated cost of EUR 430 million*.
According to the French Insurance Federation, the claims arose from damage caused by the hail and the rain to homes, vehicles and business assets. The nature of the damage was very varied: floods, mudslides, electrical damage, damage to the bodywork of vehicles, and loss of earnings, etc.
Pierre Michel, General Manager Reinsurance and International Operations at Covéa, a French member of the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF) spoke with Mike Ashurst, Vice-President, Reinsurance and Professional Development about how the storms impacted his organisation and how they dealt with the subsequent claims.
“During the last three months France has suffered from 84 stormy days that is to say 16 days more than the average (2009-2017),” said Michel.
“With our extensive portfolio all over the French territory we registered roughly 55,000 losses, which is actually less than our normal market share, thanks to our advance alert system, Coventeo,” Michel continued.
Michel spoke of how the Covéa “Coventeo” system proved its efficiency as the organisation was able to anticipate the occurrence of the heaviest storm episodes and thus was able to contact customers early, through text messages mainly, in order to provide advice on ways to keep safe and reduce the impact of the losses.
However, Michel did say that the large concentration of losses during a short period of time made the on-site assessment take longer than usual. Saying that this is an area where Covéa is working hard towards constantly improving customer experience and processes.
In addition Michel explained: “Over the past few years we have developed mobile offices for the settlement of claims and we have booked venues in areas where the frequency of the losses is highest and we have developed partnerships with body shops to quickly repair cars affected by hailstones.”
“These examples,” says Michel, “show how Covéa goes a long way to take care of its customers, above and beyond simple financial compensation for losses.”
*Source: The French Insurance Federation
