Chinese insurers paid $1.3 million earthquake claims

Chinese insurance firms have paid a total 9.3 million yuan ($1.3 million) in claims related to China's most powerful earthquake since 1950, the industry regulator said.

Chinese insurers have donated more than 150 million yuan to earthquake relief efforts, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said in a statement posted on its Web site, citing estimates as of May 17.

The magnitude-7.9 earthquake which hit south-central China's Sichuan province on May 12 was the nation's most powerful since a magnitude-8.6 quake struck Tibet in 1950, killing 1,526. The death toll increased to 32,477, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.

Just 5 percent of the more than $20 billion of damages from the quake in Sichuan province is covered by insurance, according to estimates from an official at the industry regulator, who declined to be identified.

(Published by Bloomberg 19, 2008)