PERILS to provide insurance coverage in Turkey

PERILS, the Zurich-based company providing industry-wide catastrophe insurance data, has extended its market coverage to include Turkey. PERILS will now provide market-wide property sums insured exposed to earthquake and flood events in Turkey via its database, as well as to provide event loss data for any major events. The addition of Turkey brings to the number of territories currently covered by PERILS to 14. The other countries it operates in includes Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.PERILS collects property sums insured and event loss data from primary insurers in Turkey per CRESTA Zone and property line of business. Based on the collected data, PERILS produces an independent and objective data set of market exposures (total sums insured) and market event losses. This information can be used for a range of applications, including for industry loss-based risk transfer products such as industry loss warranties and insurance-linked securities (ILS), as well as catastrophe risk model validation. "The inclusion of Turkey marks another milestone in the ongoing evolution of PERILS,” said Luzi Hitz, chief executive officer, PERILS.“We are particularly grateful for the support which we have received from the majority of the primary insurance companies in this market. Without this support, PERILS could not fulfill its mission to increase transparency in the natural catastrophe risk arena, and as a result facilitate a more liquid and stable cat market."  Eduard Held, head of products at PERILS, added: "Turkey ranks as one of the top catastrophe markets globally. We are therefore proud that PERILS can now also provide the industry exposure and loss data for this market at a CRESTA and property line of business resolution. “This will have a positive effect on the modelling and management of Turkish catastrophe risk by improving the understanding of the risk, and as a consequence further enhance its tradability. PERILS data are also ideally suited for industry loss-triggered ILWs and cat bonds. Held also said that PERILS has facilitated limits of more than $11 billion of risk capacity and that the firm is confident that the new service will help to stimulate further developments on this front for earthquake and flood risks in Turkey. Georg Andrea, head of data management at PERILS, commented: "We are very pleased with our data providers’ commitment to PERILS and the good relationship we have with them. This is essential if we are to construct a high quality market database, which in turn can serve as a reliable and objective benchmarking tool for portfolio steering and risk assessment, as well as for industry loss-based risk transfer."