BOSTON—Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner Joseph G.Murphy said the insurance industry, as it has repeatedly, respondedwell to the terrorist bombings during the Boston Marathon earlierthis year.
As it did in reaction to tornadoes in 2011 that affected thecentral and western part of the state and caused $200 million inlosses, or Superstorm Sandy, or major snow last February, theindustry “stepped up to the plate and made clients whole,” Murphysaid here at the PCI Annual Meeting.
|According to the most recent data calls insured losses to theP&C industry were about $2.5 million. Health insurance claimstotal about $23 million.
|Murphy expressed support for the reauthorization of theTerrorism Risk Insurance Act. He said the National Association ofInsurance Commissioners adopted a resolution in August to voicesupport and submitted comments to a President Obama working groupon the matter.
|According to Murphy, the fact many businesses did not haveterrorism coverage in place would have led to them being adverselyaffected by the bombings on April 15. But businesses and publicfigures took the “unusual” position that no terrorist act tookplace in order to “preclude carriers from triggering exclusionscontained in most business insurance policies.” Officials had noexperience and the closure of the sites for more than a week afterthe bombings made it “difficult to determine exposure or fileclaims.”
|Murphy said the lack of clarity on whether the event would beofficially declared a terrorist attack under TRIA caused someconfusion in the media and among government officials. Murphy saidhis office submitted data from insurers to the Federal InsuranceOffice, but the bombings did not reach thresholds for damages underthe act.
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