Hurricane Irma triggered $U.S. 31.2 million Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) payouts to Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, St. Kitts & Nevis, Turks and the Caicos Islands, and the Bahamas for excess rainfall and tropical cyclone policies.
Irma triggered Aggregate Deductible Cover policies, which include cyclone risk, for Anguilla and the Turks & Caicos Islands, which received $6.6 million and $14.8 million respectively.
These payouts bring the facility’s total claims settlement to date to over $100 million given to 12 of its 17 member countries within 14 days of the event.
The facility enables members, who pay an annual premium directly in proportion to the amount of risk transferred to CCRIF, to purchase coverage for each insured hazard of up to about $100 million.
CCRIF CEO, Isaac Anthony, said that by pooling “the catastrophe risks of our members into a single diversified portfolio, we are able to save our members approximately 50% in individual premium payments compared to if they were to purchase identical coverage individually.”
Since its inception in 2007,the CCIRF facility has proven the success of its concept of risk pooling to provide affordable disaster relief and reduced governmental budget volatility.
The facility provides an injection of short term liquidity when a policy is triggered, providing emergency relief capital that reduces post disaster resource deficits.
The CCRIF said; “A case in point is Haiti. After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, their earthquake insurance payout from CCRIF (approximately US$7.8 million, 20 times more than the insurance premium) was the first set of funds received and arrived long before pledged international financial assistance.
“CCRIF’s payout made 14 days after the event constituted around 50 per cent of the total aid the Government received in the first 10 weeks in the form of direct liquidity.
“The importance of the rapidity of the CCRIF payout is clear, particularly given that, according to reports, more than six months after the earthquake, less than 10 per cent of the U.S. $5 billion in donor pledges had been received.”
