Despite it still being early days, Christoph Jurecka, Chief Financial Officer at Munich Re, has estimated that the firm’s losses related to Hurricane Melissa will reach the mid-triple-digit million-euro range.
During Munich Re’s Q3 2025 earnings call, Jurecka said, “Melissa, our current assumption is that it will be a mid-triple digit million EUR number for the loss.”
Andrew Buchanan, CFO of Reinsurance at Munich Re, during the Q&A with analysts, also commented on the potential impact of Melissa, echoing Jurecka’s message that a mid-triple digit loss number is expected, but adding that this fits comfortably inside the reinsurer’s Q4’25 loss budget.
Earlier today, Munich Re also confirmed its annual guidance of €6 billion for the 2025 financial year, as its net result rose 120% in the third quarter and 12% over the first nine months of the year.
As reported yesterday, Hannover Re, another of Europe’s big four reinsurers, also expects a three-digit loss from Hurricane Melissa, but is confident that its share of the loss will be less than the roughly €450 million of unused Q3 large loss budget.
Alongside this, Hannover Re raised its full year 2025 net income guidance by €200 million to €2.6 billion, on the back of a strong performance in 9M’25.
Thierry Léger, CEO of European carrier SCOR, also commented on Melissa, acknowledging the severity of the event but stating it is still too early to provide a loss estimate.
He said, “On Melissa, it’s fair to say that it has been a devastating event for the people and population. There have been winds with speed levels close to 300 kilometres an hour, and even strong buildings have been down. So a very, very difficult event for the people in Jamaica. For us, it’s too early to tell where the real losses will be, so we prefer not to comment at this point in time. But it’s fair to say that it will be an event in which we will participate in our fair share, but again, too early to say.”
SCOR released its Q3’25 results on 31st October, reporting net income of €217 million, reversing the loss for the same period last year, as the property and casualty combined ratio strengthened to 80.9%.
Swiss Re, the last of Europe’s big four reinsurers to report its results, is scheduled to do so on Friday, 14th November, and may comment on Melissa’s impact.
In addition, catastrophe risk modellers have released initial insured loss estimates for Hurricane Melissa. Moody’s RMS Event Response estimates private market insured losses between $3 billion and $5 billion, while Karen Clark & Company places privately insured losses in Jamaica and Cuba at $2.4 billion.
Cotality anticipates losses of $1 billion to $2.5 billion, and Verisk’s Extreme Event Solutions group has warned that insured losses to onshore property in Jamaica could range from $2.2 billion to $4.2 billion.
Given the low insurance penetration in the affected regions, the total economic cost is expected to be far greater, with AccuWeather posting a preliminary estimate of $48 billion to $52 billion in overall damage and losses.
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