Reinsurer Swiss Re estimates the insured damage caused by the violent hailstorm that struck Switzerland at the end of August at around 1.7 billion francs. The figure was announced at a press conference held during the reinsurance industry's gathering in Baden-Baden, and reported on 13 October 2026 by the AWP news agency, as carried by Allnews.
What this figure measures
The amount put forward by Swiss Re covers insured damage, that is, claims covered by insurance contracts. It does not necessarily correspond to the total economic cost of the event, which may include uninsured losses. The source does not provide an estimate of this overall economic damage.
It should also be stressed that this is an estimate, released while claims may still be in the process of being handled. The text specifies neither the calculation method nor the margin of uncertainty, and does not say whether the figure may be revised as claims are processed.
What happened on 28 August
According to the dispatch, on 28 August, strong gusts of wind were accompanied by hail, with hailstones locally reaching up to five centimetres in diameter. The cantons of Bern, Solothurn, Aargau, Zurich and Thurgau were particularly affected.
Motor vehicles alone account for 800 million francs in claims, or nearly half of the total estimate (a ratio calculated by the editorial team from the two published figures). Damage to vehicles quickly mounts up, the source explains, because a single extreme weather episode can hit several thousand cars at once.
A toll that could have been heavier
Leopold Camara, head of reinsurance for Northern, Central and Eastern Europe at Swiss Re, notes that the storm occurred in a region “of relative density”. “If the same event had occurred over Zurich, it would no doubt have caused much greater losses,” he said. This is the reinsurer's assessment, not a quantified scenario.
Who pays?
The dispatch does not detail how the burden is shared between primary insurers, reinsurers and, for buildings, the cantonal building insurance institutions. Nor does it specify what share of the amount falls to Swiss Re itself. In the absence of information in the source, this question remains open.
Likewise, the source offers no comparison with major hail episodes of previous years in Switzerland. It is therefore not possible, on this basis, to place this event in a historical ranking.
A trend noted by the reinsurer
For Swiss Re's executives, this event is far from isolated. Extreme weather phenomena are, in their view, increasingly the cause of claims, including in Europe. They cite northern Italy, where hailstorms in July and August also caused significant damage to vehicles.
On the prevention side, the source mentions warnings issued as early as possible and access to covered car parks. The question of the effect of these phenomena on the level of insurance premiums is not addressed in the dispatch; no figures are given on this point.
Key takeaways
The figure of around 1.7 billion francs is a Swiss Re estimate of insured damage, including 800 million for vehicles. The basic facts (date, cantons affected, size of the hailstones) are established; the breakdown of costs, the historical comparison and the consequences for premiums are not specified by the source.
