Aidan Pope, Managing Director

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The Mexican federal government’s risk management strategy exemplifies a modern, resilient disaster preparedness plan, including pre- and post-event approaches and public-private partnerships. Following the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, the Mexican National Civil Protection System (SINAPROC) was created, establishing a multi-level system to integrate stakeholders from the three levels of government, the private and social sectors, academia and scientific organizations. Its purpose was to provide an institutional framework for the improved coordination of emergency response. Its capacities in the areas of risk assessment, early warning, preparedness and disaster risk financing were developed. As SINAPROC evolved, it added risk reduction practices to shift from a reactive to a preventative, holistic and integrated risk management plan.

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Aidan Pope, Managing Director

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Many recent catastrophe events in the Latin America/Caribbean region provide examples of the protection gap: Only 5 percent of the USD 8 billion economic loss from Haiti’s 2010 earthquake was insured; and the insured portion of the USD 2 to 3 billion economic loss caused by the April 2016 earthquake in Manta, Ecuador, is expected to reach no more than 15 percent. The 2016 earthquake has deeply impacted the local economy and government finances as unemployment increased by approximately 50 percent and the government was compelled to increase sales taxes by two percent to fund national reparation and recovery costs. In general, emerging markets face a much larger protection gap than developed economies:

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Aidan Pope, Managing Director

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Globally, three of the ten most costly natural disaster events in the last 35 years occurred in total or in part in the Latin America/Caribbean (LAC) region (1); losses from Hurricane Matthew in the Caribbean are still being assessed.

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Here is a look back at the CAT-i stories covering January through mid-June of 2017.

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Here we review GC Capital Ideas posts about how (re)insurers are utilizing model applications to improve their understanding of their risk exposure.

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Here we review recent GC Capital Ideas posts about public-private sector initiatives working to help alleviate the strain on the public balance sheet post catastrophe event.

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Graham Jones, Senior Vice President

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In July 2016, the China Residential Earthquake Insurance Pool (CREIP) was jointly established by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) and Ministry of Finance. In development since 2014, the scheme consists of 45 insurers distributing policies with basic limits of USD 7,500 and USD 3,000 for urban and rural residents, respectively. Coverage up to a maximum limit of USD 150,000 is negotiable. The claims process has been simplified with payouts equaling zero, 50 or 100 percent of the policy limit based on five damage levels.

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Graham Jones, Senior Vice President

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According to United Nations estimates, 54 percent of the world’s population lives in Eastern, Southern and Southeastern Asia. The region hosts 778 million urban inhabitants and seven out of the world’s top ten most populated cities. The region is also home to every major peril - from cyclone to tsunami - and has experienced some of the world’s largest catastrophes based on economic loss. While there are natural catastrophes all over the world, Asia is a unique confluence of people and perils.

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A slow-moving upper-level weather pattern with an embedded frontal system has brought periods of heavy rainfall to areas of eastern Canada to include the Saint Lawrence, Ottawa and Rideau Rivers and surrounding watersheds. The heavy rainfall together with melting snow has caused significant flooding for areas of southern Québec and eastern Ontario to include areas of Montréal and the National Capital Region. Flood control measures in north Montréal were also compromised, causing the flood threat to amplify. At least 4,141 homes have been flooded in Québec. More heavy rainfall is expected over the coming days.

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Guy Carpenter & Company hosted an international forum entitled “Building sustainable flood insurance solutions” in Berlin on May 9-10. The event brought together leading figures from science and academia, non-governmental organizations and the (re)insurance industry to examine the rapidly growing impact of flooding and explore measures to significantly reduce that impact.

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