BARBADOS IS AMONG 16 Caribbean countries whose governments have paid millions of dollars to renew insurance coverage in the event of a catastrophic event.
The island has insured against hurricanes, earthquakes and excess rainfall, the CCRIF SPC (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility) announced recently.
CCRIF is a special facility established to help regional countries recover financially from the effects of natural catastrophes. Since its establishment in 2007, Barbados is one of several countries which have benefited from US$35.6 million in payouts.
The organisation said that its16 Caribbean member countries all renewed their hurricane policies, 13 which previously had earthquake policies renewed those, and that there were now 12 countries with excess rainfall coverage, “an increase of four”.
“The addition, in 2014, of excess rainfall coverage to the CCRIF suite of insurance products provided early demonstration of its value: four payouts totalling US$3.4 million were paid to three member governments under their excess rainfall policies,” CCRIF said.
“One of these payouts was made to the government of Anguilla after the passage of Hurricane Gonzalo, which did not tirgger that country’s hurricane policy – which is based on wind speed and storm surge.”
It added: “The other three payments, including a second to Anguilla, were due to two trough systems that were not part of a tropical cyclone and which caused considerable damage to the affected countries. Barbados and St Kitts & Nevis were the other two recipients of payouts for excess rainfall coverage last year.”
CCRIF said that for 2015/2016 policies it “offered a premium package that included a 50 per cent discount for hurricane and earthquake policies and a 15 per cent discount on excess rainfall policies”.
It explained that this “rebate” was “a way of providing a benefit to member countries based on CCRIF’s positive financial performance”.
The facility also “offered to lower the minimum attachment point (or deductible) to a return period of ten years”.