Meanwhile, insurers with high exposure in Japan are finding it difficult to implement their usual catastrophe claims practices. “We have banned all travel to Japan,” said Andreas Shell, who is global head of claims (short-tail) for Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty (AGCS) and claims crisis manager for the full Allianz Group.

Mr Shell dealt with claims in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001 and following hurricane Katrina in 2005. “However, this is a totally different scenario,” he said. For the first time ever, the insurance giant is not in a position to send claims specialists to the affected area following a major catastrophe. This could lead to even higher claims because, as a rule, the later an insurer arrives on the scene, the more expensive business interruption claims become.

“In business interruption, the clock is ticking," said Mr Shell. “It is a fact that the later we become active, the higher the claims caused by business interruption.” Allianz and its clients cannot jointly implement any loss reduction measures, as is normally the case.

So far the insurer has received very few claims so it is too early to venture estimates about its total loss. “Our customers are not thinking about insurance at the moment but about their staff,” added Mr Shell.

Mr Shell said that the company would not approach clients with offers of settlements. "We do not know yet what losses we and the clients are talking about," he said. "Such an approach might give them the feeling that we do not want to give them what is due to them. Of course, we make interim payments on covered claims."

He added that European industrial companies who will suffer from a lack of parts due to temporary closures of Japanese suppliers might be insured for business interruption. "We then have a case of contingent business interruption," said Mr Shell. "The condition is that there has been an insurable event at the foreign supplier and production has stopped, and that contingent business interruption risk in Europe has been included in the policy," he said.

Japanese manufacturers are important producers of electronic components and other expensive parts needed by European industry. These parts are not easily replaced. There are fears among European companies that a prolonged shut-down of key suppliers will cause major problems.

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