The first insurance industry victim of last week’s Christchurch earthquake has been named.

He is Sydney-based loss adjuster Carey Bird, 48, a Marsh employee who was working in the company’s Christchurch office in the Pyne Gould Guinness building when it collapsed.

It’s understood that Mr Bird, a New Zealander, had been working in Sydney for some years and was on secondment to Marsh’s Christchurch office when the earthquake struck. Two other people from the Marsh office are still listed among the missing.

Mr Bird’s death was confirmed today by the Australasian Institute of Chartered Loss Adjusters (AICLA).

AICLA President Ian Lavin says Mr Bird came from a family of loss adjusters. His father Don is “a doyen of the adjusting fraternity”, and his brother Grant is a member of AICLA’s NZ division.

Australian-owned financial services company Perpetual has reported its Christchurch office in the Pyne Gould Guinness building has been destroyed and 10 staff are unaccounted for.

In an announcement to the NZ Stock Exchange, the company gave no indication as to the fate of the trapped personnel.

Insurance Brokers Association of New Zealand CEO Gary Young told insuranceNEWS.com.au today he has contacted “all but a couple” of the 19 brokerages which operated in central Christchurch, and “only Marsh has lost people as far as we are aware”.