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.
The European Commission has called for a new climate resilience framework to strengthen Europe’s ability to anticipate, prepare for, and manage climate risks. The initiative calls for the establishment of a Climate Insurance Alliance, to improve coverage, drive risk prevention and encourage greater use of reinsurance and catastrophe bonds to close protection gaps.
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While the global natural catastrophe insurance protection gap is estimated to have risen to US $424 billion in 2025, new research from Swiss Re’s Institute suggests that insurance coverage is growing at a rate broadly in line with the increasing catastrophe exposure.
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Jean-Jacques Henchoz, Chairman of the Board of BMS Group and former CEO of Hannover Re, gave an impassioned plea for the reinsurance industry today to make inroads into narrowing protection gaps, seeing innovation, technology and a culture of experimentation as key, while the capital markets are a vital tool to achieve this.
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Bridging the widening natural catastrophe insurance protection gap is part of building macro financial resilience, which calls for innovative solutions such as catastrophe bonds, parametric instruments and regional risk pools, according to Lesetja Kganyago, Governor of the South African Reserve Bank.
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According to global reinsurance firm Swiss Re, inflation adjusted exposure to natural catastrophe losses is set to continue growing at a faster pace than insurance premiums around the world, which will drive the expanding protection gap even wider over the coming years.
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With a widening crisis protection gap evident around the world there is a need for a transformational expansion in the use of insurance and reinsurance mechanisms to transfer risks to the capital markets, according to a report from the High-Level Panel on Closing the Crisis Protection Gap.
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COP 29, the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Baku, Azerbaijan, has drawn to a close with agreement on certain areas and progress being made on the much-discussed Loss and Damage, as well as the Global Shield, two programs of some relevance to insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) markets.
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During the full-year 2023, the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) team at private markets focused investment manager Schroders Capital allocated over US $817 million to transactions that specifically help in reducing the insurance protection gap.
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A joint report published by insurance giant Generali and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) highlights parametric risk transfer and insurance as a key solution that can help to close the US $1.8 trillion protection gap.
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The global natural catastrophe protection gap widened again in 2023, rising 5.2% to US $385 billion in premium equivalent terms, but at the same time Swiss Re reports that there are signs of more protection being available, which over time should see more losses covered by insurance and reinsurance.
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