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.
Global Parametrics, the parametric and index-based disaster risk transfer company that launched with the backing of the UK and German governments, has added a new senior non-executive director to its board.
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A group of United Nations backed initiatives are looking to expand the use of parametric or index insurance and reinsurance in the Pacific region, with a study expected to identify new use-cases and possibilities to drive uptake.
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Global Parametrics, the parametric and index-based risk transfer company that launched with the backing of the UK and German governments, will utilise one of the world’s fastest computers to enhance its climate and seismic risk models and help it develop products.
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The depth of the capital markets, the structural innovation of insurance-linked securities (ILS), alongside traditional capacity from insurance and reinsurance markets, should all be combined to help efforts to close the protection gap in Asia Pacific, according to Michael Schwarz of Guy Carpenter.
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Global reinsurance firm Swiss Re has newly identified an enormous $500 billion global property (catastrophe and non-catastrophe) and mortality risks protection gap, saying that this is an opportunity for insurance and reinsurance markets to boost global resilience.
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In supporting the Pacific Island nations on their road to resilience, the World Bank aims to expand the availability of parametric disaster insurance protection, partly through the use of private capital, while expanding the range of parametric insurance products available in the region as well.
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In order to close the insurance protection gap the world’s oldest insurance and reinsurance market, Lloyd’s of London, says that capital market investment, channeled through insurance-linked instruments, is going to be a key tool to help achieve this.
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Insurance-linked securities (ILS) are well positioned to meet emerging demand from the ECIS region (Western Balkans, Southern Caucasus, Eastern Europe and Central Asia), although certain challenges must be addressed in order to stimulate issuance, according to global catastrophe risk modeller, RMS.
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Blue Marble Microinsurance (Blue Marble) is working with coffee company Nespresso on a pilot program to deliver weather index insurance to smallholder coffee farmers in Colombia.
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A devastating earthquake that struck the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Friday causing a tsunami is expected to have resulted in more than 1,000 deaths, according to reports, with widespread destruction reported along the coastline and some areas still unreachable.
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