The insurance industry has been severely impacted by the pandemic, with business interruption causing the most headaches. Claims will continue to be litigated and arbitrated as courts and ombudsmen work through a backlog of cases. Covid triggered a spike in the number of policyholders claiming on their cover, the costs insurers had to fork out, and the volume of disputed claims. The Financial Ombudsman Service received 90,000 more complaints during the pandemic, and insurance broker Howden puts the insured losses so far from Covid-19 at $44bn, representing the third-largest cost to insurers of any catastrophe.
