CDB assists govt with US$2.57mn for catastrophe insurance premium

The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has granted the government of Haiti US$2.57mn to pay its June 2012-May 2013 catastrophe insurance premium to the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), the bank said in a statement. Payment of premiums is a recurring expenditure, and should normally be provided for in national budgets. However, in view of the current social, economic and fiscal challenges being faced by Haiti, the country would be unable to pay its CCRIF premiums without external assistance, CDB said. CCRIF is a parametric insurance facility owned, operated and registered in the Caribbean for the region's governments and it is the world's first regional insurance fund. CCRIF insures government risk and is designed to limit the financial impact of catastrophic hurricanes and earthquakes to Caribbean governments by quickly providing short-term liquidity when a policy is triggered. Parametric insurance is not an indemnity-based policy. Instead it calculates the payment of the claim according to an estimate based on the level of hazard of the event and not on paying the actual losses adjusted.