September 10, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic and the various measures to limit the disease’s spread have significantly disrupted economic activity in countries around the world, resulting in significant losses. According t0 OECD, the vast majority of these losses are likely to be absorbed by policyholders (unless governments or courts intervene) as only few companies have BI coverage – exposing the existence of an important protection gap for pandemic-related BI losses.
In the past four months, we have been inundated with client inquiries regarding insurance coverage and how it responds to COVID-19 induced BI losses. As the situation is so much in flux, and clients continue to face new challenges, it is very difficult to give specific advice to our clients. Furthermore, (re)insurers are also reacting to BI claims differently across countries of the sub-Saharan region.