Newly-appointed Macau Monetary Authority (AMCM) President Benjamin Chan Sau San said Tuesday the latest figures showed that the insurance claims filed in the wake of Super Typhoon Hato have reached 2.9 billion patacas (US$ 363 million).
Hato hit Macau hard on August 23, resulting in severe flooding.
Chan made the remarks while speaking to reporters after his swearing-in ceremony, at the Secretariat for Economy and Finance.
Chan said that until last Monday the local insurance sector had received 1,900 insurance claims filed in the aftermath of Hato, involving a total of 2.9 billion patacas, adding that most of the claims were for financial losses.
Chan said that so far the AMCM had not received any complaints from insurance clients about insurance companies refusing to pay out on Hato-related claims.
According to the Macau Post Daily Chan said that insurance companies had already paid out on claims concerning injury or death, involving about 20 million patacas.
A total of 10 people were killed and 244 injured by the typhoon which also resulted in massive power and water supply disruptions for several days.
When asked by reporters if the large amount of insurance claims within a short period of time has caused an adverse impact on the local insurance sector, Chan said that the operations of local insurance companies continued to be sound and that the insurers had taken a raft of measures to cover any possible risks.
According to the Official Gazette (BO), Chan joined the AMCM, the city’s monetary and insurance regulator, as the director of its Research and Statistics Office in 2001, before he was appointed as a member of the authority’s Administrative Committee in August 2015.
Chan, who holds a doctoral degree in economics and finance from the University of Hong Kong, worked as an assistant professor at the University of Macau (UM) from 1998 to 2001, according to the gazette.
Chan, who also holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Warwick, worked in Hong Kong from 1988 to 1998, where he worked in the banking sector and for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).
