disaster claims less than 10bn insurers have sought to calm fears that they face huge losses after an earthquake and giant waves killed at least 38 000 people in southern asia munich re and swiss re the world s two biggest reinsurers have said exposure will be less than for other disasters rebuilding costs are likely to be cheaper than in developed countries and many of those affected will not have insurance analysts said swiss re has said total claims are likely to be less than 10bn 517bn swiss re believes that the cost would be substantial but that it is unlikely to be in doubledigit billions the financial times reported munich re the world s largest reinsurance company said that its exposure is less than 100m euros 70m 136m at least 10 countries have been affected with sri lanka indonesia india and thailand among the worst hit the region s resorts and western tourists are expected to be among the main claimants lloyds of london told the financial times it expected its exposure to be limited to holiday resorts personal accident travel insurance and marine risks a spokeswoman for hanover re europe s fifthlargest reinsurance firm estimated tsunamirelated damage claims would be in the low doubledigit millions of euros the company has paid out about 300 million euros 281m 400m to cover damage caused recently by four major hurricanes in the us but insurers have not had long to assess the economic impact of the damage and reports of more casualties and destruction are still coming through so many things are unclear it is just too early to tell said serge troeber deputy head of swiss re s natural disasters department you need very complicated processes to estimate damages unlike the hurricanes you can t just run a model he anticipated that his own company s total claims would be less then those from the hurricanes which the company put at 640m allianz a leading german insurer said it did not know yet what its exposure would be however it said the tidal waves were unlikely to have a significant impact on its business zurich financial said they could not yet assess the cost of the disaster the impact on us insurance companies is not expected to be heavy analysts said most us insurers have relatively little exposure to asia and those that do pass on a lot of the risk to reinsurance companies or special catastrophe funds insured damage could be a fraction of the billions of dollars worth of destruction in sri lanka india thailand indonesia the maldive islands and malaysia said prudential equity group insurance analyst jay gelb us insurers are likely to have only minimal to no exposure it s more likely the bermudabased reinsurance companies might have some exposure said paul newsome an insurance analyst at ag edwards co many of the affected countries such as indonesia sri lanka or the maldives do not usually buy insurance for these kinds of disasters