Parametric insurance news

Ministers from the G20, or Group of Twenty forum for global economic cooperation, recently came together in South Africa for annual meetings and the Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group advocated for the enhancement of risk transfer solutions, particularly including use of parametric insurance, risk pools, and catastrophe bonds.

Insurance and reinsurance broking firm Aon has structured and placed the first and largest parametric forest fire insurance policy ever undertaken in Brazil, developed for stationery manufacturer Faber-Castell.

The World Bank has announced today that following the events of Hurricane Melissa, the Government of Jamaica will receive a full 100% payout of its $150 million IBRD CAR Jamaica 2024 parametric catastrophe bond.

Moody’s RMS Event Response has provided a best estimate for the insurance and reinsurance industry losses from recent hurricane Melissa of $3.5 billion, with a range of between $3 billion and $5 billion anticipated.

Having already seen its parametric tropical cyclone insurance triggered by major hurricane Melissa’s winds, Jamaica is now set to also benefit from a payout under its CCRIF SPC parametric excess rainfall policy, taking the total it will receive to $91.9 million.

Liberty Latin America, one of the largest communications and entertainment service providers in the region, is anticipating around an $81 million payout from its parametric windstorm insurance after hurricane Melissa activated its coverage in the Caribbean.

Catastrophe modelling firm Karen Clark & Company (KCC) is the latest to issue an estimate for the insurance industry loss from recent major hurricane Melissa, pegging the total at US $2.4 billion.

Hurricane Melissa is only estimated to have caused insured losses in a range from US $1 billion to US $2.5 billion in Jamaica, according to catastrophe modeller Cotality, with the total expected pegged at US $1.5 billion, while the economic impacts are far higher demonstrating the protection gap.

The Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) has confirmed that it plans to release a consultation paper in the fourth quarter of 2025 regarding the establishment of a new special purpose insurer (SPI) that will primarily focus on the use of parametric triggers.

As Jamaica awaits an official determination on a potential $150 million payout from its IBRD CAR Jamaica 2024 parametric catastrophe bond from Hurricane Melissa, ratings agency Fitch has said that it does not expect to see any adverse reaction from the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market as a result of the payout.