catastrophe

Zurich based PERILS AG, an independent provider of industry-wide European catastrophe insurance exposure, industry loss data and indices, has released its first estimate of industry wide insured property losses for October’s European windstorm Christian.

Capital from alternative and third-party sources as well as the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector may not yet be making huge waves across Asia but it is firmly on the radar of attendees at the 12th Singapore International Reinsurance Conference this week.

The Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Pilot, a disaster insurance facility which provides parametric insurance cover for tropical cyclone (typhoon) and earthquake, including tsunami, risks to a group of Pacific Islands, has renewed from November and added one new island member.

European windstorm Christian was the largest insurance market catastrophe loss event of the month of October, according to Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe model development center at reinsurance broker Aon Benfield.

As reinsurance industry executives meet in Singapore this week for the 12th International Reinsurance Conference, a report published by reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter shows that both supply and demand for catastrophe reinsurance in the Asia Pacific region are at a high.

A report released today by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers states that as the world’s population shifts towards urban population centres, the growing numbers of people living in cities and urban landscapes increases the world’s susceptibility to natural disasters.

Verisk Analytics, parent organisation to the Insurance Services Office, catastrophe and claims data provider Property Claim Services (PCS), risk modeller AIR Worldwide and Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER), has formed a new division called Verisk Climate.

Willis Re, the reinsurance intermediary arm of global insurance broker Willis Group, has put an estimate of $4.74 billion (€3.5 billion) on the insured loss toll from a number of severe hail storms which struck Europe between 17th June and the 6th August.

The remarks made by the head of the top financial services and insurance regulator in Canada, which called for insurers to look to catastrophe bonds as an alternative way to access risk transfer and reinsurance capital, have sparked some speculation on when we’ll see a cat bond covering solely Canadian perils.

The government of Taiwan is being urged to purchase insurance protection against natural disasters and catastrophe events, such as earthquakes and typhoons which affect Taiwan every year, as a way to lower the burden of reconstruction on public money.