8 July 2019News

AXA XL joins Pool Re in placement of innovative business interruption cover

AXA XL has joined Pool Re, a British terrorism reinsurer, on the placement of its new retrocession programme covering non-damage business interruption (NDBI) losses.

The cover protects Pool Re with a limit of £40m and sits excess of both a £15m placement attachment and separately, the member retentions.

The programme incepted on July 5, with cover placed by Guy Carpenter and Liberty Specialty Markets acting as the lead market. Munich Re is also partnering with Pool Re in the deal.

The Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill 2018, which was signed in February 2019, allows Pool Re to cover losses incurred if a business cannot trade or is prevented from accessing its premises in the wake of a terrorist attack that does not involve damage.

The placement returns the majority of NDBI risk to the private market, supporting Pool Re’s long-term strategy to normalise the market to the maximum, sustainable extent possible. Cover is back to back with that provided by Pool Re to its members and is focused primarily on non-damage denial of access caused by a terrorist attack.

Steve Coates, chief underwriting officer at Pool Re, said: “This is the culmination of our longstanding efforts to both enable Pool Re to cover non-damage business interruption and to return as much of the risk to the private market as possible. Our actuarial team, in collaboration with Guy Carpenter and counter-terrorism specialists, developed an in-house model for NDBI, which allows both us and our reinsurers, to quantify and evaluate the risk.”