AIG MEMSA

Issue 12 | November 2007

Product/ Service highlight:

Samsun flood – Claims Servicing AIG MEMSA

On 24 August 2007, the city of Samsun in Black Sea area of Turkey, was hard hit by the unexpected rain and floods inundating most parts of the city.

As the situation deteriorated AIG quickly reacted to the situation and initiated crisis management procedures starting with contacting our Samsun Branch in order to gather information on the extent of the damage and exposure to determine the appropriate level of action. We were notified by our local contact that we had already received 3 Personal Lines and 1 Property claim notification which gave us a strong indication that the situation would worsen and our expectations for future losses would be increasing dramatically considering the weather was expected to escalate over time.

In an effort to provide our customers with superior service and experienced claims management in a crisis situation we mobilized our team and took a pro active approach by identifying all customers in the area that would be effected by the incliment weather and set up a disaster management team to do preliminary inspections and relief operation on the customers in the effected area. Each insured and their agents were contacted by phone and we appointed three dedicated surveyors from Istanbul to examine only claims effected by the flooding. Our Samsun Branch team spent their time visiting most of our clients throughout the weekend to ensure their safety and claims were being handled efficiently and effectively to return their lives to normal.

As soon as the surveyors arrived in the city, they made the first loss evaluation and informed us of the damage assessment on a daily basis. This evaluation was carried out during the entire weekend as the flooding occurred on Friday. The preliminary reports were received on the 28th of August 2007. In order to ease the financial burden of our insureds we decided to make advanced payments. In an effort to expedite the payments to the customers effected by the flooding we had wire transfers effected on the 31st of August and the remaining payments were made in cash. All advanced payments were received by our insureds within 3 business days from the date of the event.

Following the event, the feedback from our customers and agents came in the form of thank you letters referencing our fast and fair claims handling and their appreciation extended in the form of a publication of an advertisement in the local newspaper thanking AIG's Disaster and Claims Team.

Our total loss relating to this event will exceed 1 million US dollars and resulted from over 75 claim of which 65 were property related, 9 personal lines and 1 casualty claim.