Buffett's Wrong on Cyber-Insurance Risk, Chubb's Greenberg Says

(Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett has at least one critic of his cyber-insurance views: Chubb Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Evan Greenberg.

Greenberg took issue Thursday when asked about Buffett’s recent comments on the topic. At Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s annual meeting in May, the billionaire said risks tied to cyber coverage are still too tricky to assess accurately.

“I don’t think we or anybody else really knows what they’re doing when writing cyber,” Buffett said. “It is just very, very, very early in the game.” Buffett estimated there was a 2 percent risk of a $400 billion super catastrophe, and that cyber was one of the contributing factors included in that calculation.

“I don’t agree with that,” Greenberg said Thursday at the S&P Global Ratings insurance conference in New York. “I don’t agree with the statement.”

Greenberg said cyber risk is insurable and that “Chubb is a large writer” of the coverage.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Louis in Chicago at blouis1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Steve Dickson, Dan Reichl

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