Turkey earthquake: estimated economic and insured losses

As at 20 February 2023, the Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool (TCIP) has settled 221 663 claims related to the damages caused by the devastating earthquake that occurred on 6 February. The cost of the claim amounted to 519.177 million TRY (27.5 million USD) for the pool. These claims concern the residential properties destroyed by the earthquake.

According to the supervisory authority (SEDDK), this cost is expected to reach several billion Turkish Liras in the upcoming days.

On top of the compensation paid by TCIP, the agricultural insurance scheme "TARSIM" is set to pay 70 to 80 million TRY (3.7 and 4.3 million USD) for crop and animal losses. About 3 million TRY (158 890 USD) of that amount has already been paid out.

As for motor insurers, they have made a 1 billion TRY (53 million USD) provision for damaged vehicles.

Business interruption, loss of profits, physical damage are likely to cost the whole market 12 billion TRY (635.56 million USD).

Death insurance losses are projected to reach 850 million TRY (45 million USD).

International risk modeling companies have also published their estimates. According to Moody's RMS, the disaster could lead to economic losses worth 25 billion USD, including 5 billion USD to be borne by insurers.

The firm Karen Clark & Company (KCC) is expecting economic damages reaching 20 billion USD and insured losses totalling 2.4 billion USD.