Insurance giant QBE's boss Pat Regan has said the coronavirus...

Insurance giant QBE's boss Pat Regan has said the coronavirus crisis could lead to "lasting change" in the way businesses are insured, with talks already under way between governments and the industry to restructure exclusion clauses for pandemics.

The outbreak of SARS in the early 2000s caused the global insurance industry to introduce general exclusions for business interruption policies related to quarantinable diseases as premiums would skyrocket if these risks were to be covered. But Mr Regan said talks between insurers and governments, particularly in the UK and US, could see that reversed.

"Most recent discussions have gone more into how do we make sure that this kind of thing is covered going forward, how could we do a public-private partnership, so there’s some kind of government backstop where insurers do cover pandemics going forward.

"I think we will see change in that kind of area," he told The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. "It may cause lasting change to business interruption [cover]."