Insurers face soaring payouts as disasters intensify

Natural disasters caused $135bn in economic losses globally in the first half of 2025, fuelled by the Los Angeles wildfires, reinsurer Swiss Re said on Wednesday. Swiss Re, which serves as an insurer of insurance companies, said first half losses were up from the $123bn in the first half of 2024. The Zurich-based reinsurance giant estimated that of this year’s first half losses, $80bn had been insured — almost double the 10-year average, in 2025 prices. The Los Angeles blazes in January constitute the largest-ever insured wildfire loss event by far, reaching an estimated $40bn, said Swiss Re. It said the “exceptional loss severity” of the fires was down to prolonged winds, a lack of rainfall and “some of the densest concentration of high-value single-family residential property in the US”.