St. Maarten joins Caribbean’s cat risk facility CCRIF SPC

St. Maarten has joined CCRIF SPC (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility), purchasing coverage for tropical cyclones, earthquakes and excess rainfall.

CCRIF’s membership now stands at 20 countries – 19 Caribbean governments and 1 Central American government after both the British Virgin Islands and Montserrat also joined the facility during this policy year.

CCRIF provides parametric insurance coverage, the selection of which is largely driven by the fact that parametric insurance is generally less expensive than an equivalent traditional indemnity insurance product as it does not require a loss assessment procedure in case of a disaster, according to a corporate statement.

St. Maarten, like 12 other Caribbean countries, was severely impacted by Hurricane Irma in September 2017 with damages in the country estimated by the government and contained in its disaster recovery plan to be in excess of $1.8 billion. Following Tropical Cyclones Irma and Maria in 2017, CCRIF made payouts totalling $55 million to 9 member governments. Since CCRIF’s inception in 2007, it has made 36 payouts totalling $130.5 million to 13 member governments, all within 14 days of the event, the statement said.

CCRIF SPC is a segregated portfolio company, owned, operated and registered in the Caribbean, and 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 UK and France, the Caribbean Development Bank and the governments of Ireland and Bermuda, as well as through membership fees paid by participating governments.

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