ING compensates flood victims in Alberta

ING’s insurance subsidiaries are assisting more than 5,000 customers to clean up and repair the water and hail damage incurred as a result of recent storms in southern Alberta. Jetse de Vries, chief operating officer for ING Canada, Western Region, says the Company’s brokers and response team have been assembled since the first storms hit, enabling the Company to be in a position to provide immediate emergency services and support to its customers.ING assigned 80 insurance specialists to its emergency response team including about half from its offices in Northern Alberta and British Columbia, and from suppliers. In addition, ING opened a temporary office in Medicine Hat, following the hail storm that hit that city. In a number of cases, the insurer issued preliminary payments on the basis of drive-through appraisals to facilitate the recovery process for its clients.ING Canada estimates that it will incur gross claims expenses amounting to between $75 million and $100 million as a result of the June storms in Alberta, for a pre-tax cost of between $40 million and $50 million net of reinsurance recoveries.”While the impact of the storms and floods has been significant for the inhabitants of the affected areas,” de Vries says, “these situations are normal occurrences for organizations like ours who, every year, are called upon to support our customers in the aftermath of a number of large storms or other natural disasters.”