Parametric insurance news

Abundant insurance and reinsurance capital means carriers and brokers can pursue “bold, client focused solutions” with both parties finding the current environment “energizing”, according to broker Willis (WTW).

Willis, a business of broking group WTW, has launched a unique parametric insurance policy, designed in collaboration with Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, who will act as the insurer, which is introduced when a red weather warning is issued by the UK Met Office or Met Éireann, the Irish National Meteorological Service.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has hired Samantha Cook from the World Bank, who brings deep experience in disaster risk insurance arrangements, including parametric risk transfer and instruments such as catastrophe bonds.

Arbol, a technology-led underwriter of parametric risk transfer, climate and weather insurance or reinsurance business, has launched a new parametric wildfire insurance product for commercial and residential properties in high-risk wildfire regions in the U.S., with coverage limits up to $10 million.

Global reinsurance giant Munich Re has provided the capacity to support a parametric wind proxy hedge risk transfer product, structured using a solution from kWh Analytics, for a 79MW, wind project in Virginia, developed by Apex Clean Energy.

As extreme weather events become more frequent and severe, closing the widening climate protection gap has never been more urgent. According to Elizabeth Henderson, Global Head of Climate Advisory at broker Aon, financial tools such as parametric insurance, catastrophe bonds, and public-private partnerships (P3) are critical towards building resilience and closing the gap.

Miller, the independent specialist re/insurance broker, has partnered with Specialty Program Group Canada (SPG Canada) and NormanMax Syndicate 3939 to facilitate a binder between the two parties, granting SPG Canada full underwriting authority for a first-of-its-kind parametric earthquake solution in British Columbia.

Aon has called on insurance and reinsurance companies to optimise their capital stack and align it with their strategy, including through the use of alternative and ILS capital structures, in a market where an analytics-driven approach is critical to delivering efficiency, flexibility and returns.

After a challenging few years that began with the hurricane-heavy season of 2017, the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market has entered a sustained period of strong returns. The rebound is also reshaping recruitment trends, with rising demand being seen for talent in business development and analytics, according to 20Twenty Search’s Jason Sykes.

CatX, the digital catastrophe and parametric risk exchange company, has merged with fellow Bermuda-based risk software company Cactus and launched the Cactus Risk Studio to enable clients to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to power risk decisions and risk transfer.