News

GP has led the renewal of the landmark USD 1.9 Million Mexican Reef Protection Program. It is one of the first examples of a nature-based solution on a coral reef and protects an environmental asset by providing the funds for rapid restoration, whilst also mitigating the impact to the local economy. The Mesoamerican reef is the largest in the western hemisphere and is an important site of biodiversity.

GP has structured a solution to provide windstorm protection on the world’s most remote habitable island. Our unique wind index will help safeguard Tristan da Cunha’s lobster factory which is responsible for 70% of the island’s income. This is indicative of our continued commitment to providing protection to businesses and communities in emerging markets.

GP are proud to welcome Obbe Tuinenburg PhD and Zoe Nolan to the team. Their arrival signifies our commitment to building platform independent standardised indices that can be used globally to understand climate and weather perils, and to deploy these at scale. Obbe holds a PhD in Land Atmosphere Interactions and Earth Systems Sciences from Wageningen University and Zoe’s diverse computer engineering background has seen her work within cloud services, microservices and blockchain development.

Co-founder Jerry Skees discusses how his development experience helped get Global Parametrics off the ground. In the interview with Eastern Standard’s Tom Martin, on WEKU, he touches on how his agricultural background led to opportunities traversing many corners of the world. This brought the “link between development, poverty and natural disasters into a much larger story for me to understand the economics of disasters and how it impacts the poor the most.”

Having a reliable way to understand the impact of an event, prior to it occurring, is a game changer for building resilience to extreme weather and natural disasters. In April’s The Actuary Magazine, Jerry Skees and Alin Radu discuss the value of Parametric Forecast Indices, and give an in-depth look at Global Parametrics’ B-Ready program, where we developed a disaster risk financing product with Oxfam and Plan International in the Philippines.

Our Head of Innovation, Toby Behrmann spoke at the European Microfinance week on a panel titled ‘climate disaster relief for sustainable resilience’. Along with other industry experts, Toby discussed how parametrics contribute to smart decisions around climate disasters, allowing programmes to anticipate needs before disaster strikes and act swiftly when support is needed most.

BMZ has committed 25m to a new capital pool that builds on a model already established by the UK. Beginning at the start of the year, that money can be used to underwrite risk-transfer instruments that speed up recovery payouts when disasters strike or that offer a financial safeguard to agencies looking to increase their programs across the developing world.

Global Parametrics aim to improve access to cover by means of parametric products in emerging markets. These constitute a type of insurance that covers the probability of a predefined event happening, rather than indemnifying actual loss incurred.

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Global Parametrics in relation to its arrangements with global reinsurance firm Hannover Re and the German Government in relation to a new natural catastrophe focused investment fund, NDF Deutschland.