10 October 2016News

CCRIF to fund Haiti $20m due to intensity of Hurricane Matthew

The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), which is backed by governments including Bermuda, has offered to pay approximately $20 million to the Government of Haiti, due to Hurricane Matthew.

The payment is a response to the hurricane reaching the sufficient magnitude required to trigger the full policy limit for Haiti’s tropical cyclone coverage.

Matthew made landfall in Haiti on October 4 as a Category 4 hurricane, bringing intense rain, wind and surge waves, which caused mudslides and flooding.

Since 2007, CCRIF has made a total of 15 pay-outs to ten member governments totaling $38.8 million, this most recent payment bringing the figure to roughly $58.8 million.

CCRIF’s parametric insurance products are insurance contracts that make payments based on the intensity of an event, based on hurricane wind speed, earthquake intensify or volume of rainfall.

“The CCRIF board and team extend our condolences to Haiti on the loss of life and extend our support to the Government and people of Haiti as they recover from this disaster,” said Isaac Anthony, CEO of CCRIF.

“We know that the Government welcomes this payment and is looking forward to beginning their recovery efforts.”

“The aggregation of exposure data in Asia is definitely a challenge for re/insurers and modellers alike,” he said. “Our models are sophisticated enough to make good decisions about modelling aggregate data but this will always be a second best to having better resolution exposure information—particularly when it comes to geocoding a location.

“As we continue to produce higher resolution models and flood maps, we’ve certainly reached a point where it’s in everyone’s interest to make sure that good quality exposure data collection on assets is passed upstream so that good risk management decisions can be made from underwriting through to reinsurance.”