Haiti’s parametric CCRIF deductible cover activated by earthquake

The Caribbean island nation of Haiti is to benefit from a small payout from the CCRIF SPC (formerly called the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility), after a recent magnitude 5.9 earthquake on October 6th activated its aggregate deductible coverage under the facility.

The M 5.9 earthquake struck Haiti resulting in the deaths of roughly 30 persons, injuring many more and destroying some houses. Infrastructure damage was said to have been relatively minor.

While this was not a particularly impactful earthquake compared to those Haiti has experienced before, the country will still benefit from a payment from the CCRIF SPC thanks to the introduction of the aggregate deductible coverage (ADC).

The earthquake was not sufficiently severe to trigger the parametric earthquake insurance policy that Haiti has with the CCRIF, but it was sufficiently severe under the model to trigger an ADC payout.

The aggregate deductible coverage (ADC) was introduced as a new CCRIF policy feature last year and is designed to provide a means by which CCRIF can help its members disaster recovery financing needs when the events modelled losses fall below the parametric attachment point, but there are observable losses on the ground.

In this case the CCRIF said that its preliminary calculations, an analysis of preliminary runs of how its loss model for peak ground acceleration saw government losses for Haiti, show that while the main policy was not triggered the fact there are observed losses under the model means a payment of US $91,437.50 will be due under the ADC feature of Haiti’s earthquake policy.

While this isn’t a significant sum it will be welcomed by the government of Haiti and due to the parametric nature of the CCRIF coverage it can likely be disbursed to the country very quickly as well, with CCRIF payments typically made within a fortnight of an event occurring.