International insurance broker Howden has joined forces with Everbridge, Inc., a leader in critical event management (CEM) and national public warning solutions, to enable response and recovery organisations to address climate risk and resilience.
The first-of-its-kind collaboration brings together Everbridge’s public safety technology with Howden’s insurance expertise.
By combining Everbridge’s tech with parametric insurance, it’s hoped governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and charities are able to manage the entire lifecycle of a catastrophe event.
Everbridge’s CEM tech supports the preparation for and response to an event, while parametric insurance policies enable rapid payout post-event, which is vital to the emergency response effort.
Parametric coverage is triggered when a pre-defined event occurs that breaches a pre-determined figure or index. For example, this could be a hurricane event in a certain location with the trigger being windspeed, or a flood event in a region with the trigger being height.
As a result, parametric insurance policies are able to payout much sooner post-event than traditional indemnity structures, for example.
The pair state that by bringing together the CEM tech with parametric insurance, they’ve created a mechanism to shift capital from the relief phase into the emergency response phase of the critical event, which ultimately helps to save more lives and minimise damage to property.
Charlie Langdale, Head of Climate Risk and Resilience at Howden, commented: “When a major natural disaster occurs, emergency response teams need access to funds quickly and reliably.
“Having pre-arranged finance in place enables those delivering the disaster response to get aid to those who need it, when they need it. Because payment is based on pre-determined triggers, validated by third-party data, parametric policies can pay out almost immediately upon the agreed parameters being hit.
“Whilst Everbridge’s public warning systems mobilize the people needed to respond to disasters, parametric insurance can mobilize the capital to fund the response. This brings together two critical components of resilience to help those responsible for preventing loss of lives and livelihoods by facilitating a faster, more structured response.”
Everbridge’s tech will be used to power a workflow, including data collection, communications, and coordination of the emergency response effort. The aim is to enable govs, NGOs, and charities to deploy insurance capital or assets purchased quickly and effectively support the response.
Dominic Jones, Senior Vice President of Partnerships & Alliances at Everbridge, said: “While Everbridge technology helps our customers prepare for and manage critical events, a major catastrophe requires capital to fuel the emergency response.
“We partner with Howden as they continue to push the industry to look at new innovative ways for customers to address an increasing threat landscape from extreme climate-related disruptions.
“Together, Everbridge and Howden are providing differentiated solutions for mitigating climate risk and maximizing resilience by using technology and insurance-based capital solutions to help shorten the period of time between a major event occurring and people receiving the funds.”
