El Niño May Cause Fewer Hurricanes in North America, Limiting Insurance Losses, Zurich CEO Says

The development of El Niño climate phenomenon might limit catastrophe claims in North America, the CEO of Zurich Insurance said last week after it reported second-quarter results.

“What we hear is that this development of El Niño is actually moderating the risk of typhoons and hurricanes, especially on the American coasts. So it could actually not be damaging the insurance industry, and especially not damaging the customers,” Mario Greco told reporters in a post-earnings call.

U.S. government scientists expect a below-average season of eight to 14 named storms and one to three major hurricanes in 2026, but decades of development along U.S. coastlines have increased the amount of property exposed to hurricanes, meaning that even a relatively quiet hurricane season can produce severe losses.

“We learned that we shouldn’t make any weather forecast of any kind because you’re easily very wrong there,” Greco added.

(Reporting by Laudani in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)