Lloyd's of London has estimated it is facing claims of up to $2.5 billion (£1.5bn) for damage caused by Superstorm Sandy in October.
The specialist insurance market, made up of 88 underwriting syndicates, said the bill was "well within" the worst-case scenarios it prepares for.
Chief executive Richard Ward said: "Our priority is to pay valid claims as quickly as possible and help communities in North America and the Caribbean affected by Sandy get back on their feet."
Lloyd's said its estimate of between $2bn and $2.5bn was consistent with wider industry losses of between $20bn and $25bn.
Sandy, which ravaged America's north-east coast, is expected to be the country's second-costliest storm after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. That storm left Lloyd's facing claims worth $4.3bn.
The market has shown in recent years it is more than able to cope with major catastrophes and met its own claims in 2011 without any call on its central fund – its fund of last resort.
It saw a profit of £1.5bn in the first six months of this year, compared with a loss of £697 million a year earlier, the second-most- expensive year on record for the insurance industry.
The market saw £12.9bn claims in 2011, including £4.6bn related to disasters such as floods in Australia and Thailand, an earthquake in New Zealand and the tsunami in Japan.
Mr Ward added: "The market's total exposure is well within the worst-case scenarios we prepare for."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article