Insurer confirmed that 2025 storm was the largest weather event ever in its history
Releasing full-year results on Friday, FBD confirmed that Storm Éowyn was the largest weather event ever in its history. It resulted in more than 9,000 claims amounting to tens of millions of euro to the insurance firm. It said that the storm, combined with snow events in January last year, resulted in gross claims of €100m. The net cost to FBD was €30.8m.
By comparison, the net cost to the company of Storm Isha and Storm Darragh in 2024 was €15.9m.
Storm Chandra resulted in flooding, primarily in the east and south-east, in January this year.
“The floods are very impactful to individuals because of the scale of it, but wind storms such as Isha, Darragh and Éowyn were quantums greater than Chandra in their impact on us,” FBD chief executive Tomás Ó Midheach, said.
FBD shouldered 25pc to 30pc of all insurance claims made in Ireland a result of Storm Éowyn. Mr Ó Midheach pointed out that while farms, for instance, can be hit badly by wind storms, urban areas can be worse hit by flooding.
FBD saw its pre-tax profit tumble 30pc to €54.1m last year, even as its gross written premium climbed 9pc to just under €502m. That was the first time that its gross written premium exceeded €500m.
It said its average premium increased 5.6pc across its portfolio. Of that, 3.4 percentage points related to customers increasing their insurance cover and some of the remainder to inflationary impacts.
The average premium for private motor insurance at FBD rose 5pc last year. The company said that was a result of “sustained inflation and increased claims frequency”.
While the broader inflationary environment remains strong, and the cost of repairs – especially for newer, more technologically advanced cars – are increasing, Mr Ó Midheach said it’s not necessarily the expectation that motor premiums will rise inexorably.
Cars are getting much more sophisticated and much more expensive to fix
“It will settle down to a normalised rate and you would hope that it would be something similar to the rate of inflation, or less,” he said.
“If you take a point from 2015 to 2026, we still probably haven’t exceeded our peak of 2015,” he said. “We have seen radical inflation in the broader environment. But motor insurance is probably deflationary over that period of time, or at a minimum, not inflationary.”
He said the positive impact seen from the introduction of the personal injury guidelines in 2021, has been eroded by the increased cost of accidental damage claims.
“Cars are getting much more sophisticated and much more expensive to fix,” he added. “As you replace older stock with newer stock, you’re amplifying that problem. Two years ago, we saw a really significant jump, from €4,000 to €6,000, broadly speaking, for [the cost of] accidental damage.”
FBD said that it has proposed a €1 dividend per share on the back of its results, and earmarked €4m for a potential share repurchase programme during 2026.
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