World Bank Capital-at-Risk Notes Program

Jamaica is looking to renew its catastrophe bond cover that expired at the end of 2023 and the country’s Finance Minister Nigel Clarke said yesterday that a longer-term of protection will be sought with a new cat bond deal, with four hurricane seasons of cover to be the target.

The World Bank announced a significant expansion of the use of catastrophe bonds, reinsurance and instruments such as parametric risk transfer for countries exposed to large-scale disasters, with an ambition to embed catastrophe insurance and risk transfer instruments more deeply into its financing operations.

After it was reported that the World Bank targets a significant increase in the use of catastrophe bonds by its client countries, already a number of potential future World Bank cat bond deals are being discussed.

The World Bank has ambitious plans to expand its use of catastrophe bonds for member countries by roughly 400% over the next five years, growing the amount of World Bank issued cat bonds outstanding to as much as $5 billion, Bloomberg has reported.

The Finance Minister of Jamaica Nigel Clarke has told Reuters that his country intends to renew its catastrophe bond coverage when it reaches maturity at the end of this year and will do so as a stand-alone cat bond for Jamaica, or as a regional Caribbean wide one if others want to participate.

The fact capacity and capital was tight in the catastrophe bond market at the time of the issuance of the $350 million of IBRD – Chile 2023 cat bond notes drove the World Bank team to look to traditional re/insurers and the issuance of simultaneous catastrophe swaps, resulting in much stronger execution for Chile.

Speaking with Artemis in a recent video interview, Jorge Familiar, Vice President and Treasurer of the World Bank explained that client country demand for catastrophe bonds and risk management arrangements will likely rise, while he also expects that markets will be there to support these issuances.

The government of Jamaica is keen to share its experience as a catastrophe bond sponsor and wants to encourage other nations in the region to consider joining it in sponsoring a Caribbean catastrophe bond, to cover multiple countries, a report states.

According to a report from Bloomberg, the governments of Colombia and Peru and also Caribbean nations, are among those considering sponsoring World Bank facilitated catastrophe bonds, as activity in the market continues to pick up.

Hong Kong has now listed the first catastrophe bond notes on its stock exchange, with the World Bank issued $350 million of IBRD – Chile 2023 cat bond notes now housed on the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX).