CCRIF SPC is a segregated portfolio company, owned, operated and registered in the Caribbean. It limits the financial impact of catastrophic hurricanes, earthquakes and excess rainfall events to Caribbean and – since 2015 – Central American governments by quickly providing short-term liquidity when a parametric insurance policy is triggered. It is the world’s first regional fund utilizing parametric insurance, giving member governments the unique opportunity to purchase earthquake, hurricane and excess rainfall catastrophe coverage with lowest-possible pricing.

In 2007, the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility was formed as the first multi-country risk pool in the world, and was the first insurance instrument to successfully develop parametric policies backed by both traditional and capital markets. It was designed as a regional catastrophe fund for Caribbean governments to limit the financial impact of devastating hurricanes and earthquakes by quickly providing financial liquidity when a policy is triggered.

In 2014, the Facility was restructured into a segregated portfolio company (SPC) to facilitate expansion into new products and geographic areas and is now named CCRIF SPC. The new structure, in which products are offered through a number of segregated portfolios, allows for total segregation of risk. In April 2015, CCRIF signed an MOU with COSEFIN - the Council of Ministers of Finance of Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic - to enable Central American countries to formally join the facility.

CCRIF SPC is registered in the Cayman Islands and operates as a virtual organization, supported by a network of service providers covering the areas of risk management, risk modelling, captive management, reinsurance, reinsurance brokerage, asset management, technical assistance, corporate communications and information technology.

CCRIF offers earthquake, tropical cyclone and excess rainfall policies to Caribbean and Central American governments.

CCRIF helps to mitigate the short-term cash flow problems small developing economies suffer after major natural disasters. CCRIF’s parametric insurance mechanism allows it to provide rapid payouts to help members finance their initial disaster response and maintain basic government functions after a catastrophic event.

Since the inception of CCRIF in 2007, the facility has made 38 payouts to 13 member governments on their tropical cyclone, earthquake and/or excess rainfall policies totalling almost US$139 million. Also, CCRIF has made 7 payments totalling almost US$700,000 under member governments’ Aggregated Deductible Cover (ADC).

The ADC is a new policy feature for tropical cyclone and earthquake policies introduced in the 2017/2018 policy year. The ADC was designed to be akin to a dedicated reserve fund providing a minimum payment for events that are objectively not sufficient to trigger a CCRIF policy, because the modelled loss is below the attachment point.

The policy payouts and ADC payments are shown in the tables below.

CCRIF was developed under the technical leadership of the World Bank and with a grant from the Government of Japan. It was capitalized through contributions to a Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) by the Government of Canada, the European Union, the World Bank, the governments of the United Kingdom and France, the Caribbean Development Bank and the governments of Ireland and Bermuda, as well as through membership fees paid by participating governments.

In 2014, another MDTF was established by the World Bank to support the development of CCRIF SPC’s new products for current and potential members, and facilitate the entry for Central American countries and additional Caribbean countries. The MDTF currently channels funds from various donors, including: Canada, through Global Affairs Canada; the United States, through the Department of the Treasury; the European Union, through the European Commission; Germany, through the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and KfW; and Ireland. In 2017, the Caribbean Development Bank, with resources provided by Mexico, approved a grant to CCRIF SPC to provide enhanced insurance coverage to the Bank’s Borrowing Member Countries.

Nineteen Caribbean governments are currently members of the facility: Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, Sint Maarten, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago and Turks & Caicos Islands. Two Central American governments are currently members of the facility: Nicaragua and Panama.

 

Payouts

Event	Country Affected	Payouts (US$)
Earthquake, 29 November 2007	Dominica	528,021
	Saint Lucia	418,976
Tropical Cyclone Ike, September 2008	Turks and Caicos Islands	6,303,913
Earthquake, 12 January 2010	Haiti	7,753,579
Tropical Cyclone Earl, August 2010	Anguilla	4,282,733
Tropical Cyclone Tomas, October 2010	Barbados	8,560,247
	Saint Lucia	3,241,613
	St Vincent & the Grenadines	1,090,388
Tropical Cyclone Gonzalo, October 2014	Anguilla - Excess Rainfall Policy	493,465
Trough System, 7-8 November 2014	Anguilla	559,249
	St. Kitts & Nevis	1,055,408
Trough System, 21 November 2014	Barbados	1,284,882
Tropical Storm Erika, 27 August 2015	Dominica - Excess Rainfall policy	2,402,153
Earthquake, June 9, 2016	Nicaragua	500,000
Tropical Cyclone Earl, August 2016	Belize - Excess Rainfall policy	261,073
Tropical Cyclone Matthew, September 2016	Barbados	975,000
	Barbados - Excess Rainfall policy	753,277
	Saint Lucia - Excess Rainfall policy	3,781,788
	St. Vincent & the Grenadines - Excess Rainfall policy	285,349
Tropical Cyclone Matthew, October 2016	Haiti	20,388,067
	Haiti - Excess Rainfall policy	3,020,767
Tropical Cyclone Otto, November 2016	Nicaragua	1,110,193
Tropical Cyclone Irma, September 2017	St. Kitts and Nevis	2,294,603
	Anguilla	6,529,100
	Anguilla - Excess Rainfall policy	158,823
	Antigua & Barbuda	6,794,875
	Turks & Caicos Islands	13,631,865
	Turks & Caicos Islands - Excess Rainfall policy	1,232,769
	The Bahamas - Excess Rainfall policy	163,598
Tropical Cyclone Maria, September 2017	Dominica	19,294,800
	Dominica - Excess Rainfall policy	1,054,022
	Saint Lucia - Excess Rainfall policy	671,013
	Turks & Caicos islands	419,372
	Barbados - Excess Rainfall policy	1,917,506
	St. Vincent & the Grenadines - Excess Rainfall policy	247,257
Rainfall event, October 18-20 2017	Trinidad & Tobago - Excess Rainfall	7,007,886
Tropical Storm Kirk, October 2018	Barbados - Excess Rainfall	5,813,299
Rainfall event, October 18-20 2018	Trinidad & Tobago - Excess Rainfall	2,534,550
Total for the period June 2007 - October 2018		138,815,479
Total for Tropical Cyclone (14)		94,916,769
Total for Earthquake (4)		9,200,576
Total for Excess Rainfall (20)		34,698,134

 

Payments Under the TC/EQ Aggregated Deductible Cover (ADC)

Event	Country	Payments (US$)
Tropical Cyclone Irma, September 2017	Haiti	162,000
	Bahamas	234,000
Tropical Cyclone Maria, September 2017	Saint Lucia	123,750
	Anguilla	29,250
	Antigua & Barbuda	32,400
	St. Kitts & Nevis	27,150
Earthquake, October 7, 2018	Haiti	91,438
Total		699,988

• CCRIF SPC Programme Summary