The insurers pay
Some insurance companies took the position that damage from the corona pandemic was not covered and that they therefore did not belong in the insurance benefits. The damage occurred mainly in two areas of insurance. On the one hand, it was the travel insurance that should be used frequently because the vacation trips were simply canceled.
On the other hand, companies were affected and the business interruption insurance should have been paid. These are also known as epidemic insurance and this is exactly where the problem lies. Since the WHO had described Corona as a pandemic, did the insurers see themselves in the right? after all, they offer epidemic and not pandemic insurance.
But while travel insurance usually boils down to a benefit, because some health insurances have started with compensations and others have followed suit, SMEs have so far often been left alone. Even today, they still rely on goodwill because insurers do not consider damage caused by the pandemic as an insured event.
Furniture as a big exception
So far, Mobiliar has shown itself to be exemplary and has not made any distinction between an epidemic and a pandemic in its insurance policies. It has so far acted unbureaucratically and has already paid out more than 300 million Swiss francs to the insured. This was of course very well received by all insured persons, who can use the money from the insurance to compensate for part of the damage caused by Corona.
Other insurers then saw themselves under pressure and wanted to protect their reputation. To do this, they approached the insured and offered them a compromise. Insurance companies that acted in this way were, for example, Helvetia, Axa and Zurich. Some claim that insurance companies took this route to protect their reputation on the one hand and to prevent years of legal disputes on the other.
And how does it continue?
The offers of the insurers, who wanted to provide a service similar to Mobiliar, of course met with open ears from the insured and over 90 percent of the companies that received a compromise offer made use of them. This was at least communicated in this way by the Axa, and Helvetia also said something similar.
How the individual offers look like and what sums they contain cannot be found out, the companies are silent on this. The fact is, however, that insurers are expecting damage sums in the double or three-digit million range and that only for corona-related damage in 2020.
How it should go on is still unclear. The insurance industry is still discussing possible solutions, but fast insurance routes are not in sight here. There is currently talk of pool solutions that already exist for the insurance of natural disasters and for the protection of nuclear risks. However, it is not clear how SMEs can really protect themselves in the future. Incidentally, this also applies to travelers, because the current travel insurance policies will also be adjusted in the future.
Conclusion: SMEs get at least a small amount of compensation
SMEs need business interruption insurance in order to be able to survive damage in the event of an accident. This was also thought of with the corona pandemic, but no one had expected the insurers' sophistication. They argued that it was a pandemic, not an epidemic, and therefore did not need to perform.
Mobiliar was the big outsider and paid out funds to the companies without reservation. Other insurers jumped on the bandwagon in order not to lose face and to avoid legal disputes. However, they only offered compromises and not full insurance benefits. It now remains to be seen how other insurers will react.
