Earthquake in New Zealand

An earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck New Zealand’s South Island on Sunday, 13 November at 23:02 local time. The epicentre of the main shock lay about 100 km northeast of Christchurch and about 220 km southwest of the capital Wellington. Dozens of significant aftershocks have been registered since then, the strongest ones reaching a magnitude of 6.5. A Tsunami wave was triggered along the east coast of the South Island. It reached a maximum height of about two metres. There have also been a large number of landslides reported.

According to government officials, at least two fatalities have been reported. The area affected by very strong to severe shaking is thinly populated. Most damage seems to be to infrastructure and residential buildings. There is no Cat Bond exposed to this event. The potential impact on Private ILS transactions is being assessed. Twelve is monitoring the situation very closely.

Tuesday, 15 November 2016