Microinsurance news

Bloomberg reports that total rice loss in the northern Philippines from super typhoon Megi could amount to 600,000 metric tons. There was 157,000 hectares of rice crop in Megi’s path and the Philippine government is now assessing the extent of the damage and crop loss.

Super typhoon Megi has now passed over the main Philippine island of Luzon and is heading into the South China Sea where it is expected to regain some of its strength before heading for China’s southern coastline. Megi made landfall as a category 5 super typhoon with winds in excess of 155mph making her the […]

The magnitude 8.8 earthquake which struck Chile in February of this year has caused major losses to insurers and certain reinsurers. Insured losses are said to total $8b to $12b with the majority ceded to reinsurers.

Microfinance has not to date proved to be the most commercially viable area to expand into for many large insurers however that is changing and as regulation improves, technology is developed and the idea becomes more accepted it is beginning to be looked on as an area of potential growth and opportunity.

A new microinsurance product is targeting cooperatives in the Philippines to give them an affordable source of parametric insurance to protect them against the knock on effects to their loan portfolios from extreme weather events involving wind and rainfall.

Liberty Syndicates Management Ltd., a member of the Liberty Mutual Group, has announced that it is to enter the weather and agricultural reinsurance markets after a new team of specialist underwriters were hired for that purpose.

A new set of indicators published by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) show that while some progress in disaster risk management has been made in Latin America and the Caribbean more needs to be done to reduce risks and prepare government finances to respond to natural catastrophes.

Now that microinsurance is becoming a more accepted form of insurance in developing nations around the world it’s good to see people acknowledging that it requires a different set of regulation to normal insurance products. By its very nature microinsurance is aimed at poorer residents of developing nations and as such regulation needs to be […]

An project called Food Early Solutions for Africa (FESA) has been working on validating a microinsurance product for African farmers which will use satellite technology to measure drought conditions. This allows them to create an index against which a microinsurance drought product can be triggered.

We are big supporters of microinsurance (particularly weather index-linked insurance) so it’s great to receive a press release which demonstrates exactly what this sector can do to support rural communities and reimburse them financially when weather conditions affect their livelihoods.