View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2019/06/18/529655.htm
PERILS, the independent Zurich-based organization that provides industry-wide catastrophe insurance data, has acquired Toronto-based Catastrophe Indices & Quantification Inc. (CatIQ).
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Established in 2014, CatIQ provides catastrophe loss and exposure information in Canada, collecting event loss and exposure data from the majority of the Canadian insurance market. It provides an independent industry exposure & loss database for the region.
The data are primarily used by re/insurers, insurance-linked securities funds, intermediaries and modelers for market benchmarking, catastrophe risk model validation and as triggers in industry-loss-based risk transfer products.
CatIQ also works with several public bodies, as well as industry organisations such as The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) and The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR).
Based in Toronto, CatIQ will continue to be managed day-to-day by Joel Baker, CEO and founder, while Laura Twidle, managing director, will continue to lead the CatIQ team.
CatIQ will also maintain its 11-member advisory board which includes senior representatives from six major Canadian primary insurers and global reinsurers on a rotation basis, as well as permanent representatives from Aon, Guy Carpenter, IBC, ICLR and Canada’s federal agency Environment and Climate Change Canada.
“We are delighted to be announcing our agreement with CatIQ. The firm’s excellent market reputation and steadfast commitment to enhancing the industry’s understanding of [catastrophe] risk has enabled it to secure the support of the majority of the Canadian general insurance market,” commented Luzi Hitz, CEO of PERILS.
“Acquiring CatIQ is in line with our mission to increase data availability and strengthens our ability to provide state-of-the-art cat intelligence and industry loss triggers, helping boost the efficiency of re/insurers, modelers and others as well as the specialised risk transfer market,” added Hitz.
“In 2017, we entered into a strategic alliance with PERILS. That close collaboration was central to our ability to launch the FSA (CRESTA) level industry exposure database for Canada in 2018,” said Joel Baker at CatIQ.
The deal with PERILS means “that we can build upon this partnership to deliver CatIQ’s analytical platform and loss indices to the wider risk transfer market and offer additional innovative solutions to the Canadian and global markets,” Baker continued. “This is truly a win-win-win situation for all parties involved – CatIQ, PERILS and most importantly our clients.”
“There is an almost seamless fit between PERILS and CatIQ both in terms of the activities that we conduct and the culture that we operate,” said Laura Twidle, CatIQ’s managing director.
“Our industry mandates are perfectly aligned and by coming together our market proposition becomes even more appealing to the global insurance industry,” she went on to say.
Source: PERILS