Everest Insurance, Rastriya Beema Company and the United Insurance Company have made the lowest settlements in terms of the percentage of claimed amount for earthquake damage as of Thursday, the Insurance Board (IB) has said.

Nepal Insurance Company, Shikhar Insurance and Neco Insurance have made the highest payments against claims.

Despite receiving the second lowest claims among non-life insurers, Everest paid just 11.32 percent of the claimed amount. It settled 85 claims, paying Rs29.8 million, against the total 163 claims worth Rs264.1 million.

Government-owned Rastriya Beema Company(RBC), which received the lowest claims worth Rs180 million, has so far paid just 21.96 percent of the claimed amount, followed by United Insurance with 23.64 percent settlement. RBC has so far settled 115 of the 258 claims it received, while United has cleared 354 claims against total 742.

As far as insurers making the highest payments are concerned, Nepal Insurance paid 87.23 percent (Rs574.8 million), followed by Shikhar 73.2 percent (Rs761.5 million), and Neco with 71.5 percent (Rs456.7 million) of the claims they received.

Nepal Insurance has received 1,722 claims and has so far settled 1,023, while Shikhar has so far cleared 989 claims against the total 1,587 it has received. Neco has received 1,478 claims, out of which it has settled 1,081 claims, according to the IB.

Himalayan General Insurance has received the highest claims (worth Rs5.27 billion) and has so far paid 40.11 percent of the claimed amount.

IB Director Raju Raman Poudel said the insurers were making payments for smaller claims, but were delaying the settlements of bigger claims. He said the claims related to high-rises and hydropower projects remained unresolved.

On an average, 42.29 percent of the claimed amount has so far been paid, according to IB. Against the claims worth Rs18.28 billion received by non-life insurers, they have so far paid Rs7.73 billion.

The insurers have received Rs3.91 billion from reinsurance companies. “We had expected more than 80 percent settlements by now, but it has been slow,” said Poudel.

Considering the impact the earthquake on the general people’s lives, the board had asked the insurers to make payments faster.

However, the claim itself is very low compared to the damage. The claims received by non-life insurers stand at just 3.53 percent of the damage caused by the earthquakes on April 25 and May 12, 2015.

The fact is corroborated by a report published by Munich Re, a leading reinsurance company based in Germany. It says only 4.3 percent of the property devastated by the earthquake was insured.

Identifying the April 25 quake as the most devastating natural disaster of 2015, the company’s report says it caused total damage of $4.8 billion (Rs518 billion).

“But only $210 million (Rs22.68 billion) of the damaged properties have been insured,” it says.

Meanwhile, surveyors have concluded that 22 percent (3,870) of the total 17,564 claims are not payable.

Against the claims worth Rs18.28 billion received by non-life insurers, they have so far paid Rs7.73 billion