Chinese insurance companies could pay US$290 million in claims from the May 12 Sichuan earthquake, amounting to less than 1% of their premium income in the first five months of this year, state media reported. The figure, estimated by French investment bank BNP Paribas, was doubled from an earlier projection after China’s insurance regulator pressured companies to make "goodwill" payments that may not have been strictly covered for the earthquake. To date, the earthquake has claimed 69,185 lives and injured 374,174 people, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.