weather risk

The world’s largest reinsurance firm Munich Re’s U.S. weather derivatives and energy commodities trading unit Munich Re Trading LLC complements the reinsurers core operations and is highly strategic to its parent, according to S&P.

Reinsurance giant Swiss Re has teamed up with Chinese firm China Pacific Insurance (CPI), to introduce a temperature-index insurance scheme to protect the $73 million hairy crab industry.

Demonstrating the need to increase financial protection against weather, climate and water related disasters, a new report from the WMO shows that between 1970 and 2012 the global economy suffered a huge $2.4 trillion of losses as a result of these events.

Insured losses from severe convective weather, including tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and hail, in the United States continue to rise in 2014, with the total now estimated to have reached an insurance industry loss of $5.5 billion by Impact Forecasting.

The insured losses from severe weather in the United States continue to rise, with thunderstorms, tornadoes and hail in May expected to cause an insurance industry loss of over $1 billion, the second month in a row that insured losses have reached that level.

With extreme weather & climate related losses rising fast, as exposures grow, more violent extremes occur and industrialisation of emerging economies continues, investors and regulators are set to place increasing importance on corporate climate risks.

The Weather Risk Management Association (WRMA), an international trade association dedicated to promoting weather risk management to the industry and end-users, has announced the election of new members to its board.

The insurance and reinsurance industry is coping with the increasing number and frequency of extreme weather events and has processes in place to monitor the impact of climate change on weather losses, says rating agency Standard & Poor’s.

The insurance industry faces a rising bill for damage from severe weather which occurred in April, according to the latest report from Impact Forecasting. Thunderstorms, tornadoes, hail and floods in April are set to cause in excess of $1 billion insured losses.

According to Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe modelling development center of reinsurance broker Aon Benfield, insurers will be on the hook for an estimated $7 billion of losses from catastrophes and weather disasters in Q1 2014.