Making societies more resilient by developing new risk-transfer solutions

Swiss Re is working together with international financial institutions such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund to develop new solutions for transferring large risks.

By collaborating with institutions such as these, we jointly work on approaches to make societies more resilient to the negative impacts of global climate change, and encourage governments in emerging markets to assess their total climate risk exposure. We are a pioneer in developing new approaches for disaster risk financing, such as public-private partnership-based solutions, or in promoting the concept of country risk management to assess a country’s overall risk exposure. We are a leading consortium partner in the recently renewed Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility. This innovative risk-transfer initiative involving 17 Caribbean states was launched in 2007 on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) heads of government, underthe guidance of the World Bank and with financial support from international donors. Similarly, in October 2009, Swiss Re joined with the World Bank and Mexico to develop a single risk-transfer solution for earthquake and hurricane risks. This marks the first transaction in the World Bank's MultiCat Program, linking governments with capital markets.