The first half of 2021 saw insured losses from natural disasters hit a 10-year high of $42B. With the hurricane season underway and wildfire season around the corner, risk and insurance professionals should take extra steps to deeply analyze their portfolios and adjust their risk strategies.
Climate risk expectations and requirements for insurers will continue to increase towards “net zero insured emissions” as the frequency of extreme weather events rise. Geospatial analytics provide risk and insurance professionals with a deeper understanding of their portfolio’s emissions and risks to effectively prepare for new, incoming regulations.
Climate risks will undoubtedly impact credit and underwriting decisions through higher interest rates for at risk properties; investors, lenders, and risk professionals are taking proactive steps now to understand the risks for long-term benefits.
Wildfire, hail, tornado, and other catastrophe exposures continue to draw greater scrutiny from insurers as Covid-19 protocols are rubberbanding with the Delta variant. Risk and insurance professionals should proactively prepare for shifts in valuations.
A new report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warns flooding frequency is expected to increase 5-20x in the next 30 years, having doubled since 2000. Risk models must be regularly adjusted to grasp the continuous changes to climate risks.
Coordination between local and global master policies is often a blind spot for risk and insurance professionals, according to a recently published advisory by Chubb Global Services. Geospatial awareness of the portfolio and interaction between policies is a crucial step of effective global risk management.
Secondary perils caused over $57.5B in insured losses from natural catastrophes in 2020, and have exceeded hurricane losses by 13% over the past 20 years. As risk and insurance professionals re-underwrite and reprice exposures, geospatial visualization provides a more nuanced understanding of the varying array of policies.
Quote of the Week: “[Top insurers] have transformed their operations to automate significantly and optimise their processes in the face of strong consumer expectation, particularly in how they respond to COVID-19 and the increasing threat of natural catastrophes.”
Exposure to natural hazards from climate change tops the drivers of global risk resilience in FM Global’s recent 2021 Resilience Index. As FM Global’s VP Eric Jones notes, ““It’s a problem that the risk management culture isn’t necessarily keeping up with the increasing risk.”
Traditionally siloed risk data is unable to adequately protect against the rapidly changing world of climate risks. Enhanced analytics allow for more complex interdependencies to provide nuanced understanding of risk in the 21st century.