Oct. 12--WASHINGTON -- A multi-part package of federal hurricane relief money hitting Congress this week will wipe away $16 billion in National Flood Insurance Program debt but won't include a number of changes to the program requested by the White House.

The debt relief will free up money to pay an avalanche of claims from NFIP policyholders in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate without ballooning interest payments owed by the program. The federally run program has eaten through its cash reserves and nearly exhausted its current authority to borrow more from the U.S. Treasury to pay flooded policyholders, leaving it in danger of running out of money.

Louisiana's congressional delegation welcomed the debt relief, a measure a number of Louisiana leaders have lobbied for but had seen only limited support in Washington until now. The bill also includes about $20 billion in other federal disaster funding, most of it for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to respond to a series of natural disasters in recent months.

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney had also asked lawmakers to tie a number of sweeping changes -- which alarmed several Louisiana lawmakers and interest groups -- to the debt relief. Among the changes: rules to bar any newly constructed buildings in flood plains from the program, block any new flood insurance policies for commercial buildings and hike premiums for homeowners to "risk" rates.

None were included in the bill, which leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives released Tuesday night. U.S. Sens. John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy, both Louisiana Republicans, criticized Mulvaney's proposals, as did Congressmen Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, and Ralph Abraham, R-Alto.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, said at a Wednesday morning leadership press conference that the disaster relief package is needed to provide the resources needed to respond to a catastrophic 2017 hurricane season and deadly wildfires in California.

"If Congress doesn't provide this relief, the NFIP would be prohibited from paying any claims to any policyholders, regardless of where they are or why they are filing the claim, and that would be a major problem for lots of people in Louisiana," said Chris Bond, a Scalise spokesman.

"It's definitely a win for us," said Cailtin Berni, vice president of policy and communications for Greater New Orleans Inc., a regional economic development group that has focused extensively on flood insurance issues.

Berni had raised concerns that Mulvaney's suggested changes would effectively end construction in large swaths of flood-prone south Louisiana, make flood insurance unaffordable for many or even boot homeowners out of the program.

The fight over changes to the National Flood Insurance Program is far from over, however. Congressional authorization for the government-run program expires in early December, meaning lawmakers in Washington are under the gun to settle disputes and agree on an NFIP extension.

A number of hardline budget hawks -- led by U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, who chairs the House committee that oversees the NFIP -- have repeatedly backed changes designed to shrink the program, recalculate premiums to more accurately reflect flood risks and kick properties that have flooded more than once out of the program.

Those changes would likely lead to significantly higher costs for residents of flood-prone areas -- including Louisiana -- or simply place flood coverage out of reach of property owners in areas at high risk of flooding.

Many Louisiana property owners enjoy grandfathered flood insurance rates, meaning their risk of flooding -- and accompanying premiums -- are based on their property's elevation above the base flood level at the time it was built, not on current standards. That means owners of old homes, especially in flood plains, generally enjoy lower premium prices than they'd have to pay based on updated flood maps.

Excluding so-called "multiple-loss properties" from the program -- buildings that have flooded more than once -- could also hit areas of Louisiana hard. Owners of homes and commercial structures that took on water during previous hurricanes -- such as Katrina in 2005, Ike in 2012 or the 2016 Baton Rouge-area floods -- would be at risk of losing access to flood insurance coverage.

Hensarling and his allies have argued the changes are needed to put the NFIP on sounder financial footing.

A number of environmentalists, meanwhile, have complained that the NFIP effectively subsidizes new development in flood plains that destroy wetlands and leave areas more vulnerable to natural disasters.

But significant jumps in the cost of flood-insurance premiums -- or loss of access to coverage -- would likely hit homeowners hard in the pocketbook by pushing down home values.

Louisiana lawmakers have generally pushed for changes to the NFIP that would protect "grandfathering" for homeowners and expand the number of policyholders paying into the program.

"We need more people buying flood insurance, but some of the proposed changes (from the White House) would actually discourage that from happening and would be detrimental to Louisiana communities that rely on affordable flood insurance to help them recover from disasters like we faced last year," said Abraham, the Louisiana congressman, on Wednesday. "A lot of these issues will be addressed as Congress works to reauthorize the NFIP in December, so I'm glad we didn't attach hasty changes as riders on important bills like this."

Berni said she'd like to see further debt relief for the program when lawmakers act on it in December. The NFIP had remained in the black until 2005, when the staggering losses from Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed the NFIP's cash and left it roughly $17 billion in debt.

Subsequent costly disasters -- including Hurricane Sandy, which caused extensive flooding in New York and New Jersey in 2012 -- further hiked the debt in the program.

Interest payments on the debt now exceed $400 million each year, paid to the U.S. Treasury out of policyholder premiums. Berni said that money could be used to pay out claims and put the program on sounder financial footing.

Berni also noted that much of Katrina's destruction came as the result of federal levee failures. She argued that saddling NFIP policyholders with the costs of an engineering disaster was unfair and bad policy.

Mulvaney, the White House budget director, pegged projected NFIP payouts from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria at $16 billion -- the same amount of debt forgiveness requested in the emergency disaster bill.

If those projections prove accurate, the NFIP would be left with the same debt load once claims are settled and paid.

The House is slated to vote on the disaster bill sometime Thursday. If passed, the Senate would then consider it next week, once senators return from a weeklong break.

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(c)2017 The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.

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HONG KONG--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Hong Kong’s non-life insurance market recorded stable growth in 2025, with gross written premiums (GWP) growing year over year by 8% to HKD 108.5 billion, driven by steady growth in direct business and inward reinsurance activities, according to a new AM Best report.

The Best’s Market Segment Report, “Health and Property Lines Drive Hong Kong’s Non-Life Insurance Growth,” notes that there are 87 authorised pure non-life insurance companies in Hong Kong, as of 31 March 2026, creating tight price competition and margin pressures across the industry, which makes organic growth difficult for some entities. Accident and health (A&H) insurance remains the largest premium contributor, representing 37% of the Hong Kong non-life market. The other two core business segments — property damage and general liability (including employees’ compensation) have held consistent market share in 2024 and 2025.

Despite continued margin pressure from medical inflation, the A&H segment grew by 14.5% in 2025 from the previous year due to strong onshore business demand, an aging population and the city’s role as a regional hub for private medical services and cross-border protection.

“The rapid physical integration of the Greater Bay Area, a major urban and economic cluster in southern China that connects Hong Kong and Macau with nine cities in Guangdong province, has also led to considerable non-local demand,” said Cynthia Ang, senior industry research analyst, AM Best.

The property line of business also showed solid growth as more-frequent catastrophe events have created higher demand for coverage of commercial risks. The expansion of inward reinsurance portfolios was also a factor in the segment’s growth. However, underwriting profit for direct property damage business shrank by 87%, owing largely to huge claims payouts and substantial reserves set aside by insurers following the November 2025 Wang Fuk Court fire.

“A material portion of the gross incurred losses from the Wong Fuk Court fire was transferred to reinsurers, with limited impact on pricing. However, the scale of the event has caused primary insurers and reinsurers to reassess their risk appetite and strategy, leading to stricter underwriting standards, particularly for high-rise renovations and high-risk construction locations,” said Stephanie Mi, senior financial analyst, AM Best.

Other report takeaways include:

• The non-life segment is heavily fragmented, with intense competition and low concentration; no single company holds a market share of more than 10%.
• Favourable prior-year reserve releases contributed to stronger underwriting performance and helped improve the combined ratio for the employees’ compensation insurance segment in 2025.
• Progressive regulatory strategies balance market resilience and industry development by introducing targeted initiatives to streamline compliance and support sustainable growth.

To access the full copy of this report, please visit http://www3.ambest.com/bestweek/purchase.asp?record_code=370475.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright © 2026 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261108118111/en/

Stephanie Mi
Senior Financial Analyst
+852 2827 3402
stephanie.mi@ambest.com

Cynthia Ang
Senior Industry Research Analyst
+65 6303 5026
cynthia.ang@ambest.com

Christopher Sharkey
Associate Director, Public Relations
+1 908 882 2310
christopher.sharkey@ambest.com

Al Slavin
Senior Public Relations Specialist
+1 908 882 2318
al.slavin@ambest.com

Source: A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc.