Insurers pay out more than £750m in business interruption insurance

The insurance industry has so far paid out more than £750m in coronavirus-related business interruption insurance, and still has thousands of cases in the pipeline, according to figures released by regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) yesterday (14 June). According to the data, which goes up to 5 May, the industry has fully settled and paid out on 16,159 claims totalling £467,251,258. It has also made interim payments to 4,188 policyholders totalling £289,595,404 and accepted 37,702 claims. There are an additional 9,152 claims that the industry has received and is yet to decide on. The payments come in the wake of a closely watched test case last year brought by the City regulator concerning business interruption insurance during the Covid-19 pandemic. The FCA had asked the court to clarify the extent to which business interruption insurance covers losses arising from the pandemic and to prevent insurers from rejecting claims outright. In September, the High Court ruled and accepted many of the arguments brought by lawyers representing policyholders. In January, the Supreme Court did the same. There may still be many claims yet to be made. During the litigation it was estimated that around 370,000 policyholders are affected. Photo © Maureen McLean/Shutterstock