PERILS acquires Canadian loss & exposure data firm CatIQ

PERILS AG, the Zurich headquartered provider of catastrophe loss data and indices, has announced that it has acquired Canadian loss and exposure data firm Catastrophe Indices & Quantification Inc. (CatIQ).

Toronto based CatIQ provides catastrophe loss and exposure information in Canada, collecting event loss and exposure data from most of the Canadian insurance market and providing an independent Industry Exposure & Loss Database for the region.

So a very similar service offering to that PERILS AG provides in Europe and a few other territories and the pair have already worked together, having partnered on Canadian catastrophe loss data provision since 2017.

The data CatIQ provides is primarily used in the insurance, reinsurance and ILS fund space, as well as by intermediaries and risk modellers for market benchmarking and catastrophe risk model validation.

In addition, and again like PERILS, CatIQ’s data has been used as an input to triggers in industry-loss-based risk transfer products, such as industry-loss warranties (ILW’s).

CatIQ also works with public bodies and industry organisations such as The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) and The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR).

Commenting on the acquisition, Luzi Hitz, CEO of PERILS, stated, “We are delighted to be announcing our agreement with CatIQ. The firm’s excellent market reputation and steadfast commitment to enhancing the industry’s understanding of Cat risk has enabled it to secure the support of the majority of the Canadian general insurance market. Acquiring CatIQ is in line with our mission to increase data availability and strengthens our ability to provide state-of-the-art Cat intelligence and industry loss triggers, helping boost the efficiency of re/insurers, modelers and others as well as the specialised risk transfer market.”

CatIQ will continue to be managed day-to-day by CEO and Founder Joel Baker, while Laura Twidle, Managing Director, will continue to lead the CatIQ team.

Joel Baker commented on the news, “In 2017, we entered into a strategic alliance with PERILS. That close collaboration was central to our ability to launch the FSA (CRESTA) level industry exposure database for Canada in 2018. Today’s announcement means that we can build upon this partnership to deliver CatIQ’s analytical platform and loss indices to the wider risk transfer market and offer additional innovative solutions to the Canadian and global markets. This is truly a win-win-win situation for all parties involved – CatIQ, PERILS and most importantly our clients.”

Laura Twidle added, “There is an almost seamless fit between PERILS and CatIQ both in terms of the activities that we conduct and the culture that we operate. Our industry mandates are perfectly aligned and by coming together our market proposition becomes even more appealing to the global insurance industry. CatIQ will also continue to play its part in promoting advancements in Cat management strategies through events such as the annual CatIQ Connect Conference, which we conduct in partnership with MSA Research Inc.”

CatIQ will maintain its eleven-member advisory board, which includes representatives from six major Canadian primary insurance firms and global reinsurance companies on a rotation basis, as well as permanent representatives from reinsurance brokers Aon and Guy Carpenter, as well as the IBC, ICLR and Canada’s federal agency Environment and Climate Change Canada.

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