Insurance, reinsurance and capital market or ILS participants can and should be doing more to help bridge the escalating flood risk protection gap in Asia, reports Artemis. The Geneva Association (GA), a global insurance and reinsurance industry research body, has examined the rising threat of flood risks to the expanding, and developing Asian economies, calling on greater support from the traditional and alternative risk transfer or ILS markets to narrow the region’s flood risk protection gap.
Accordingly, the GA suggests that in order to 'ensure that disaster risk management initiatives reach the necessary scale and capacity', it is crucial to involve both the global reinsurance and alternative capital markets in any initiatives or development of regional schemes.
“The insurance and reinsurance industry can play a significant role in helping to identify, assess and mitigate flood risks. It also has an important role compensating firms and individuals for losses incurred, helping to rebuild infrastructure and communities. A precondition of this support has to be a conducive regulatory and free trade environment that enables the industry to provide insurance cover”, Inga Beale, Lloyd’s of London Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-Chair of The Geneva Association’s working group on the protection gap, told Artemis.