earthquake

The magnitude 7.5 earthquake that struck in Ishikawa prefecture on the west coast of the Japanese main island of Honshu yesterday, is not expected to have an immediate catastrophe bond market impact, Plenum Investments has said.

Japan has started the new year with a damaging magnitude 7.6 earthquake that hit the Noto peninsula region of Ishikawa prefecture today, with widespread reports of damage, the first major tsunami warning since 2011 and thousands of people evacuated from the coast.

The North African country of Morocco is reeling after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck to the south of Marrakesh on Friday night, with more than 2,000 deaths now reported, the USGS forecasts that the economic impact could be as significant as 8% of GDP.

The global insurance and reinsurance industry could face in the region of $130 billion to as much as $150 billion of losses if a really severe earthquake strikes the Tokyo region of Japan, according to Swiss Re.

The insurance and reinsurance market industry loss estimate for the Kahramanmaras Earthquake Sequence that struck Turkey in February 2023 has been raised a further 7% by PERILS, to reach TRY 92.8 billion, which would have been US $4.9 billion at exchange rates when the disaster struck.

The fact capacity and capital was tight in the catastrophe bond market at the time of the issuance of the $350 million of IBRD – Chile 2023 cat bond notes drove the World Bank team to look to traditional re/insurers and the issuance of simultaneous catastrophe swaps, resulting in much stronger execution for Chile.

PERILS AG has hiked its insurance and reinsurance market industry loss estimate for the recent Kahramanmaras Earthquake Sequence that struck Turkey and Syria in February 2023 by a significant 32%, with the estimate now at almost US $4.5 billion.

Hong Kong has now listed the first catastrophe bond notes on its stock exchange, with the World Bank issued $350 million of IBRD – Chile 2023 cat bond notes now housed on the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX).

The World Bank is “extremely pleased” with the response from investors and reinsurance markets to the recent placement of $630 million of catastrophe bonds and catastrophe swaps to protect Chile, Jorge Familiar, Vice President and Treasurer told us in our latest Artemis Live video.

For Chile, the completion of the largest single country catastrophe bond and swap transaction ever executed by the World Bank has resulted in $630 million of protection against earthquake risks, an important step towards more resilient public finances, the country’s Finance Minister Mario Marcel has said.