Allianz: Companies Experience Sharp Increase in Business Interruption Losses

• Average business interruption claim exceeds €850,000, around 70% higher than the average associated property damage claim.
• Fire and explosion accounts for more than 40% of the total value of claims analyzed.
• Non-natural catastrophe activity generates 74% of claims and 66% of total claim value, while natural catastrophe claims are becoming increasingly long-tailed.

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 8 October 2026 – Companies are increasingly at risk from surging business interruption losses due to concentrated production, fragile supply chains, geopolitical tensions, inflation, and growing technology dependencies.According to a new analysis from Allianz Commercial, the average total value of a business interruption claim now exceeds €850,000. This is around 70% higher than the corresponding average property damage claim of close to €500,000, demonstrating that the financial consequences of being unable to operate can substantially exceed the cost of repairing the damage that caused the disruption. The report analyzes 7,888 business interruption insurance industry claims with a total value of approximately €6.74bn, or US$7.82bn, from January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2025. Although claims frequency has remained relatively stable, the average value of claims increased by over 30% annually during the past two years.

"Business interruption and supply chain risk remains elevated and volatile. The operating environment is challenging with geopolitical tensions, trade fragmentation, cyber-related incidents, and growing dependency on technology such as artificial intelligence (AI). The scale of physical damage alone no longer determines the ultimate cost of a business interruption. Even a relatively contained incident can have consequences across production networks, customers and markets. Businesses therefore need to identify and better understand not only their own critical assets, but also those of the suppliers, technologies and infrastructure on which their operations depend," says Thomas Lillelund, CEO of Allianz Commercial.

Fire is the dominant cause of loss

Fire and explosion is the costliest cause of business interruption claims, accounting for more than 40% of the total value analyzed, equivalent to approximately €2.9bn, or US$3.3bn. Fire was responsible for nine of the 10 costliest man-made business interruption events in the dataset and was the most expensive cause of loss in markets including Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK and the US. One case illustrates how losses can escalate beyond the original incident: a fire at a small manufacturing unit caused relatively limited physical damage but severely disrupted downstream operations, ultimately resulting in a nine-figure group-wide business interruption loss. Natural catastrophes are the second-costliest cause, representing 34% of the value of claims analyzed, and the most frequent, accounting for 26% of claims. Together, fire and explosion and natural catastrophe events generated more than 75% of total claim value.

However, events that do not involve natural catastrophe activity remain the principal overall business interruption loss driver, accounting for 74% of claims and 66% of their total value.

Recovery is taking longer and costing more

Some natural catastrophe claims are developing over increasingly long periods. Two years after Hurricane Helene in September 2024, many associated business interruption claims remained unresolved, not due to coverage issues, but because affected companies had not yet fully recovered. Supply chain delays, labor shortages, and volatile material costs can extend both recovery and settlement.

Concentrated production is also amplifying losses. Industries can depend on a limited number of specialist sites, suppliers or regions for critical materials and components, allowing a fire, cyber incident or extreme weather event at one location to cascade through global supply chains. The two costliest non-natural catastrophe events in the analysis involved fires at semiconductor factories.

Underinsurance also remains a key risk as declared values can be inadequate due to factors such as inflation, highlighting the importance of regular review to ensure it reflects current operating conditions.

"What we increasingly see in Asia is that the size of a business interruption loss is often determined less by the initial event and more by the speed at which an organization can recover. Whether the trigger is a fire, flood, equipment failure or disruption at a key supplier, businesses operating in highly interconnected supply chains can face prolonged operational and financial consequences.

"Businesses should also regularly review their declared values and business interruption exposures to ensure they accurately reflect current revenues, costs and operating conditions. Inflation, supply chain disruption and longer recovery periods have increased the risk that declared values may no longer be adequate when a major loss occurs. The most resilient companies are those that understand their critical dependencies in advance and have practical recovery plans that can be activated immediately," adds Charlotte Field, Regional Head of Short-tail Claims at Allianz Commercial Asia.

Cyber disruption broadens the risk landscape

While ransomware remains the leading cyber-related cause of disruption, a growing share of loss activity is also being driven by cloud outages, software failures and incidents at third-party technology providers. More than 48,000 outages were tracked across cloud and software services in 2025 alone, highlighting businesses' rising dependence on digital supply chains. High-profile incidents, including attacks on software providers and logistics platforms, demonstrated how a single cyber event can disrupt thousands of organizations simultaneously. As companies become more reliant on cloud services, AI and third-party technology providers, cyber-related business interruption is becoming a more significant and complex source of loss.

"In today's interconnected economy, preventing business interruption is no longer just about protecting individual sites. While companies have made progress in understanding their supply chain exposures, prevention remains the most effective form of risk management. Investments in fire protection, natural catastrophe resilience, cyber preparedness and business continuity planning can make a meaningful difference to both the duration and severity of a business interruption loss. Even relatively modest investments can significantly reduce the impact of disruption when it occurs," explains Alberto Barani, Business Interruption Group Leader, Risk Consulting at Allianz Commercial.

Hashtag: #AllianzCommercial

https://commercial.allianz.com/
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About Allianz Commercial

Allianz Commercial is the center of expertise and global line of Allianz Group for insuring mid-sized businesses, large enterprises and specialist risks. Among our customers are the world's largest consumer brands, financial institutions and industry players, the global aviation and shipping industry as well as family-owned and medium enterprises which are the backbone of the economy. We also cover unique risks such as offshore wind parks, infrastructure projects or film productions. Powered by the employees, financial strength, and network of the world's #1 insurance brand, we work together to help our customers prepare for what's ahead: They trust us in providing a wide range of traditional and alternative risk transfer solutions, outstanding risk consulting and Multinational services as well as seamless claims handling. Allianz Commercial brings together the large corporate insurance business of Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) and the commercial insurance business of national Allianz Property & Casualty entities serving mid-sized companies. We are present in over 200 countries and territories either through our own teams or the Allianz Group network and partners. In 2025, the integrated business of Allianz Commercial generated around €17.3 billion in gross premium globally. https://commercial.allianz.com/

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Consumer trust in the four most reputable Asian countries, China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, has strengthened significantly in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) over the past five years. Western Europe’s reputation in the region has remained stable, but trust in the United States has declined sharply, the Rothman Intelligence Unit’s 2026 Consumer Reputation Index Survey of 12,000 consumers found.

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 8 October 2026 – First compiled in 2021, the Rothman Consumer Reputation Index (CRI) measures how much consumers trust a "country brand", and how far a product's "made in" label sways their purchase decisions. Country of origin is a major factor in consumer choices in Central and Eastern Europe: more important than online reviews, or even the product brand itself.

Rothman Consumer Reputation Index (CRI)

Research from multiple surveys between 2021 and 2023 identified which Asian countries have a positive reputation among Central and Eastern Europe's roughly 110 million consumers, finding China, Singapore, Japan and South Korea as the most valuable Asian country brands. Since then, the survey has continued tracking how these Asian countries perform compared with their main Western European rivals, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and with the United States, in ten countries of the CEE region: Austria, Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Serbia.

In the first survey, "Made in Germany" had the highest value in all ten countries, with the United States and France also scoring above 7. Since then, Japan has overtaken France and the United States, taking second place behind Germany in most of the countries in the region, and this year it became the most trusted country brand in Poland, as Polish consumers now rate it (7.5) above Germany (7.0), the first time an Asian country has topped a national ranking anywhere in the region.

Japan, however, is far from the biggest winner in terms of improvement. While Japan's average score has risen by 0.43 points since 2021, trust in China as a country of origin improved by 0.63 points, Singapore's score rose by 0.66 points, and South Korea's by 0.72 points over the past five years.

The survey also shows a more mixed picture since 2023 on the regional average, as South Korea and Singapore, the two biggest winners over the five years, and Japan made most of their advance by 2023 and have since consolidated well above their 2021 levels, while China is the only one that has continued to climb. China's rise mirrors the decline of the United States, which has lost exactly as much as its biggest global rival has gained – 0.63 points. As a result, the average consumer trust gap between China and the United States has narrowed from 2.0 points in 2021 to 0.74 in 2026.

In Austria, all four Asian economies now outscore the United States, and South Korea also edges ahead of the United States in Bulgaria and Slovenia. Singapore's strongest ground is Central Europe – Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Slovenia, where Singaporean origin scores above 6 and ranks ahead of "Made in China".

The "Asian four" are the biggest gainers overall since 2021, increasing their average reputation score by 0.61 points, while Germany and France have remained stable, adding 0.13 and 0.16 points to their 2021 scores respectively.

The 2026 results confirm that a product's country of origin remains a stronger purchase driver in Central and Eastern Europe than the brand itself: 59% of consumers say where a product is made matters to their choice, against 55% for online reviews and 50% for the brand.

Price is still the dominant factor (86%), followed by recommendations from friends and family (64%).

As Zsofia Balatoni, Chief Strategy Officer at Rothman, highlights, "Three years ago our survey already showed that Asia had momentum in Central and Eastern Europe. The 2026 results show the trend has held. Japan now competes with Germany for first place in Poland, China has never been rated higher, and South Korea and Singapore have closed more than half of their gap with America since 2021. Consumers in Central and Eastern Europe buy the country before the brand, and Asia's country brands are increasingly valued."
Hashtag: #Rothman #ConsumerReputationIndex #CRI #China #Japan #Singapore #SouthKorea #CEE #Europe #Asia

https://rothmanglobal.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/rothmanglobal/

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Methodology

The Rothman Consumer Reputation Index survey, completed by the Rothman Intelligence Unit on 1 September 2026, was conducted in twelve countries, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia, with 1,000 respondents in each country (n = 12,000), representative by age, gender, place of residence and education, using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI; CAPI in Serbia and Montenegro). The margin of error is ±3.2 percentage points for shares and about ±0.2 points for index scores at country level. The Consumer Reputation Index (CRI) records how positively or negatively a product's country of origin would influence a purchase decision on a scale of 0 to 10. Scores above 5 indicate positive sentiment. Montenegro and North Macedonia were surveyed for the first time in 2026. Regional averages and all comparisons with the 2021 and 2023 waves use the ten countries surveyed in every wave.

Rothman

Rothman Intelligence Unit (formerly Rothman & Roman Intelligence Unit) is a think-tank providing data analysis, research and intelligence about emerging economies, including Central and Eastern Europe, mapping CEE's economic potential, political landscape and the region's role in forming EU regulations. Rothman Intelligence Unit is part of Rothman, a strategic communications and advisory firm headquartered in Singapore.

For more information, please visit: www.rothmanglobal.com

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