The wildfires around Los Angeles are set to cost European insurance giants up to a billion euros in payouts this year. Millions of people have been displaced, thousands of homes and buildings have been destroyed and at least five people have been reported dead due to the wildfires. While total economic loss due to the disaster is expected to be around $50 billion , JPMorgan believes that insured losses originating from the wildfire could be around $20 billion — double the $10 billion they forecast earlier in the month. At least seven European listed reinsurance firms are expected to bear about a billion euros ($1.02 billion) of the losses over the wildfire, according to analysts at German investment bank Berenberg. Their estimate did not include U.K.-based reinsurance firms, which could increase the total loss amount for European companies. Reinsurance firms offer policies to primary insurance providers, like Chubb , who are present in California and directly deal with customers on the ground. The reinsurance policies typically only kick in after about 400 million euros worth of losses are absorbed by the primary insurance provider.
