disaster risk financing

The first catastrophe bond ever issued to cover natural peril exposures in the Philippines has now been priced, as the landmark transaction from the World Bank gets nearer to completion.

The World Bank supported catastrophe bond that is in the market to secure risk transfer and disaster insurance protection for the Philippines has not upsized, with the IBRD CAR 123-124 transaction still aiming for $225 million.

A catastrophe bond (IBRD CAR 123-124) has been launched to the market seeking to secure risk transfer and disaster insurance protection for the Philippines, with the World Bank supporting the country in securing a capital markets backed source of capacity for catastrophe loss events.

The World Bank continues to explore ways it can expand the range of risks and perils that its member countries can hedge using risk transfer structures including catastrophe bonds.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved $24 million of catastrophe triggered contingent disaster financing for Pacific islands the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, and Tonga.

The World Bank has delivered the first of a new combined catastrophe and pandemic contingent risk financing solution to the Maldives, leveraging existing structures to create something responsive and that works similar to insurance for the archipelagic nation.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched a new contingent natural disaster risk financing solution which it has named contingent disaster financing (CDF), as it seeks to deliver rapid paying risk capacity for its members after they experience significant natural catastrophe events.

Disaster risks and costs are on the rise in Asia, a region where under-insurance is still the norm and spending by government’s on contingent sources of disaster risk financing relatively scarce, leading the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to call for more to be done.

A group of United Nations backed initiatives are looking to expand the use of parametric or index insurance and reinsurance in the Pacific region, with a study expected to identify new use-cases and possibilities to drive uptake.

In supporting the Pacific Island nations on their road to resilience, the World Bank aims to expand the availability of parametric disaster insurance protection, partly through the use of private capital, while expanding the range of parametric insurance products available in the region as well.