The protection gap – underinsurance in emerging and developing economies and the gap between economic and insurance losses – the opportunity that is on every reinsurance CEO’s lips and which presents the largest opportunity to put excess risk transfer capital to use, requiring both traditional and capital markets support.
In a market that is faced with abundant and ongoing pressure, from excess capital, new entrants, the capital markets, reductions in buying, consolidation of reinsurer panels and difficult global financial market conditions, the reinsurance industry is focusing on the next big opportunity.
This opportunity provides both reinsurers and ILS fund managers with an opportunity to assist in building the world’s resilience to disaster risks, while providing rapidly paying post-event risk finance, at the same time as growing the world’s catastrophe risk markets.
It’s win-win for both sides, those in need of resilience and disaster risk financing and the re/insurance and ILS market which is keen to expand into new regions, perils and opportunities. Narrowing the protection gap is expected to be a key focus for years to come.
An innovative parametric insurance product that provides protection to fund repairs following storm damage to coral reefs in Hawaii has been renewed and its coverage expanded, while global reinsurance firm Munich Re is again backing the cover, which is arranged by WTW.
Read the full article
An innovative parametric insurance program has been taken across the globe to cover a South pacific coral reef in the Fiji archipelago, with broker WTW saying it will provide up to US $450,000 of cover for reef restoration and community assistance if cyclones hit.
Read the full article
A few signs emerged at the recent January 1st 2024 reinsurance renewals that bode well for protection buyers as we move through this year and into the next, as broker Aon highlighted that appetite is returning for some of the more challenged products and areas of the tower.
Read the full article
A new reinsurance fund has been launched to support delivery of innovative insurance products to protect smallholder farmers in Africa, with One Acre Fund Re expected to become a source of capacity to back what will likely be largely parametric risk transfer instruments.
Read the full article
New technologies can serve as a bridge between the re/insurance industry and the world’s most vulnerable, and alongside the use of insurance-linked securities (ILS) and innovative solutions such as parametrics, can help to close the global protection gap, according to the Insurance Development Forum (IDF).
Read the full article
In a perhaps surprising turn of events, the opening hours of the COP28 climate talks today have seen a landmark agreement to operationalise and provide initial funding for the much-discussed loss and damage fund, that is designed to help the countries that are most vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.
Read the full article
Having spent time in Bermuda and attended the recent PwC Insurance Summit on the island, the equity analyst team at BMO Capital Markets has concluded that the insurance and reinsurance industry is suffering a lack of confidence in its risk models, which they say has been a key driver in capital flight and retrenching higher.
Read the full article
Delivering a speech in Canberra today, Andrew Hall, the Executive Director and CEO of the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) explained that insurance and reinsurance markets are repricing risk globally and for reinsurers, writing risk in Australia is no longer seen as the diversifying hedge it used to be.
Read the full article
A new report calls on the world to implement risk sharing systems, such as parametric triggers in insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) such as catastrophe bonds, as a central pillar of the Loss and Damage architecture required to protect the most vulnerable nations against climate, weather and natural disasters.
Read the full article
Although there are investors waiting on the side-lines of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market with an interest in responsible transactions, there’s still a need for a minimum return which outweighs the importance of liquidity and diversification, according to industry experts.
Read the full article
