Rising premiums and low property losses so far this year have US insurers smiling. The Insurance Services Office in New York says total losses from three catastrophic events was only $1.5 billion – the best quarterly catastrophe performance in the US for 10 years.

The most significant of the three events was the February earthquake in the Pacific northwest, which brought 110,000 claims across 12 states. The other two events were severe thunderstorms in the south.