Six New Zealand based co-insurers have paid out the country’s largest earthquake claim settlement to date this week.

The $550 million settlement of the University of Canterbury’s earthquake claims is the largest private insurer-lead settlement in New Zealand.

Gary Dransfield, the CEO of Vero, which was the lead insurer in the case, said it had been making payments along the way to enable the University to operate with the outstanding amount to be paid by the end of January 2015.

“This has been a lengthy settlement process that involved multiple assessments for a total of 237 buildings that required specialist review and detailed analysis for each of the earthquakes that caused damage,” he said.

“The agreement is a great example of the benefit to Kiwis of having locally based private insurers leading some of the largest insurance settlement agreements in New Zealand.”

The ability to bring on board a local team that successfully negotiated other major commercial settlements was beneficial to the University as they were able to share insights from previous consultations, the insurer said.

One of the co-insurers, AIG, said their share had been their largest claim payout in New Zealand to date.

Vero would not reveal the names of the remaining insurers citing confidentiality agreements.

Vero has been the lead insurer on several huge claims of late.

In April they announced the $200 million settlement of the Ministry of Education claim and last year they settled on the Lyttelton Port Compny and Housing New Zealand.

The company’s total settlement figure after this latest claim will be over the $4 billion mark.