CelsiusPro announce new QuotePro weather derivatives platform and test accounts

Swiss based weather derivatives and risk management specialist CelsiusPro have announced the launch of a new pricing platform for distribution partners and new test accounts at the Weather Risk Management Association conference in Houston, Texas. CelsiusPro, who work in partnership with Swiss Re are already known for their online platform and this announcement marks the next evolution in their technology offering.

The QuotePro platform is a ‘state-of-the-art weather derivatives pricing platform for distribution partners’ according to their press release. The new platform allows interested companies to become distribution partners with CelsiusPro and immediately begin distribution of weather products without prior know-how and with low set up costs. With interest in weather hedging on the rise amongst companies whose profits and business are weather dependent, CelsiusPro have built a network of partnerships who act as distribution channels for their weather derivatives products across Australia, Europe and North America.

Mark Rueegg, CEO of CelsiusPro, said: “Our distribution partners are very important to us. They are our link to many clients across the world. We are launching this new platform in order to give our partners an even greater support when advising their clients on how to best hedge weather risk”.

Previously distribution partners, such as broker introducers and companies who white-labeled CelsiusPro services used their public online derivative pricing tool, not the new QuotePro platform will offer more insight into historical weather data and better tools for more efficient structuring. The press release explains the following benefits of the new platform: “Graphical display of historical weather indices, statistical information about averages and volatility, fully flexible non-consecutive day selection and auto generated Offer- and Term Sheets (PDF) sheets”.

Utilising a distribution network and taking advantage of white label partnership opportunities is a great way for CelsiusPro to expand their business and gain access to new end-users of their products. It will allow them to enter new sectors and leverage the relationships that other companies have with their customers to create greater volume through their platforms.

Separately CelsiusPro also announced that they will now offer free of charge test accounts for interested parties who want to learn more about the benefits they could glean from weather derivative products and how much they would cost them. The test accounts will allow pricing, purchasing, daily reporting and tracking of status and settlement of virtual weather derivatives online. Accounts can be created simply online and allow users to quickly structure, price and purchase virtual weather derivatives for over 2,000 weather stations across Australia, Europe and North America.

Mark Rueegg, CEO of CelsiusPro, says: “These are fast-paced times for financial risk management and we need to make sure weather hedging is a straightforward and transparent process to make clients feel comfortable. We have seen a significant rise in demand for our weather certificates and clients are impressed with the simple execution process. Now we plan to increase the attention even further by letting everyone experience the use of weather derivatives and familiarize themselves with it.”

The test accounts are a really interesting idea as previously you could quote weather derivatives online with a number of services but we’re not aware of any that let you experience the whole transaction lifespan, from structuring to settlement, online for free. If you want to try out the test account option you can access details here on the CelsiusPro website.