CHINA'S insurance companies had paid out 87.82 million yuan (US$12.55 million) in claims related to the Sichuan Province earthquake as of last Saturday, according to the insurance regulator.

Insurers received about 200,000 claims for 13,600 insured people certified dead, 1,632 injured and 27,500 collapsed houses, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said in a statement on its Website.

Among the claims, 2,459 were for corporate properties for which the insurers have paid out 13.55 million yuan, while 105,000 were for family properties.

Insurers were said to have incurred direct losses estimated at 383 million yuan for 2,337 buildings which collapsed, while 12,000 houses were damaged in the quake. Twenty-six insurance employees were killed in the disaster and 223 others were injured.

Chinese insurers have faced several major natural disasters this year, including the worst snowstorms in half a century to hit the country in January and February.

Compounding the problem is that China's disaster industry sector, including earthquake insurance, is still under-developed.

It was estimated that just 5 percent of the more than US$20 billion of quake-related damages in Sichuan was covered by insurance.