CelsiusPro & Aon Benfield renew partnership on weather risk transfer

Swiss headquartered weather index insurance and parametric risk transfer specialist CelsiusPro AG and reinsurance broker Aon Benfield have renewed their existing partnership that sees the pair working together to deliver weather risk transfer solutions to Aon clients.

CelsiusPro and Aon Benfield have been working together on parametric weather risk transfer since 2013, with CelsisuPro providing risk analysis and structuring services for weather index insurance products to the reinsurance broker.

Renewing the partnership “paves the way for the further development of highly specialised and innovative weather and natural catastrophe insurance solutions,” CelsiusPro said today.

In particular, the pair have worked to create risk transfer solutions for large construction projects, including high-rises, pipelines or stadiums, which can face significant disruption due to weather risks.

Weather risk addressed include extreme heat, cold or wet, and even wind gusts, structured as heat day insurance, rain day insurance, and maximum wind products.

CelsiusPro undertakes worldwide weather risk analyses for reinsurance broker Aon Benfield on an exclusive basis, leveraging large-scale climate data from official meteorological, hydrological, geological or space agency sources, to model the risks and structure index insurance solutions to compensate for weather related construction delays.

Being parametric in nature the resulting weather risk transfer or insurance products pay out quickly, based on the actual parameters of a weather event, for example based on the number of construction days where the temperature rose above 35 degrees Celsius or the wind speed exceeded 40 km/h.

As a result these products not only respond to weather conditions that could cause damage to construction assets, but also help to compensate for lost activity and business interruption type weather risks.

Kurt Cripps, Global Head of Weather and Managing Director at Aon Benfield, commented; “CelsiusPro’s modelling capabilities allow us to address the specific needs of large construction projects and to offer unique customised solutions for weather-related construction risks. This is a huge advantage for construction companies and project managers and supports a comprehensive risk management process.”

Mark Rüegg, CEO of CelsiusPro, also said; “We are pleased to continue the partnership with Aon Benfield and to jointly analyse major construction projects all over the globe. This cooperation enables us to further develop our specialised parametric insurance products and to access a large variety of customers that face risks due to adverse weather.”