CatIQ releases update to Canadian insurance industry exposure database

CatIQ releases update to Canadian insurance industry exposure database | Insurance Business Canada

Catastrophe & Flood

Growth trend seen in personal lines specialty perils cover

Catastrophe & Flood

By
Mika Pangilinan

Catastrophe Indices & Quantification (CatIQ) has issued its annual update of the Canadian Insurance Industry Exposure Database (IED).

CatIQ’s IED was developed in collaboration with the Canadian P&C industry to provide information on property sums insured, number of risks, and prevailing original insurance conditions across various categories such as geography, perils, line of business, and cover type. The latest release includes 2022 year-end estimates of Canadian industry property sums insured.

The 2022 year-end dataset reveals a consistent growth trend in personal lines specialty perils cover, particularly in the area of flood insurance.

Since data collection began in 2016, there has been a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17% in personal lines flood total sums insured. The total sums insured for personal flood exposure now stand at C$6.2 trillion.

Prior to 2015, overland flood coverage was generally unavailable to homeowners in Canada, according to CatIQ.

“The significant growth in personal lines flood insurance in recent years is clearly a positive development for the market,” said Laura Twidle, president and CEO of CatIQ. “This, in combination with the announcement from the Government of Canada relating to the creation of a national flood insurance program, will undoubtedly help to bolster the protection of Canadians’ assets. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our participating insurers for their support in the production of this database.”

The IED was introduced in June 2018 and is based on detailed exposure submissions from the Canadian insurance market. The database is consistent with the globally recognized methodology employed by CatIQ’s parent company PERILS AG and is updated annually to provide accurate and up-to-date information.

Additionally, CatIQ, with the support of participating insurers, produces industry loss estimates at the FSA level for various perils, lines of business, and cover types, as well as any catastrophe that results in an industry loss greater than C$250 million.

The detailed loss dataset contains the following major events:

Fort McMurray wildfire – April 2016
Windstorm in Ontario and Quebec – May 2018
Ottawa and Gatineau tornadoes – September 2018
Fort McMurray ice jam flooding – April 2020
Calgary hailstorm – June 2020
Calgary hailstorm – July 2021
British Columbia flooding – November 2021
Ontario and Quebec derecho – May 2022
Hurricane Fiona – September 2022
Eastern Canada bomb cyclone – December 2022 (coming soon)
Ontario and Quebec spring ice Storm – April 2023 (coming soon)

“I congratulate the CatIQ Team for the successful launch of the Canadian IED 2023,” said Luzi Hitz, CEO of PERILS. “CatIQ’s high-quality market exposure and loss data not only support a range of model validation and market benchmarking activities but also facilitate risk transfer via industry loss based re/insurance products.”

“The industry loss data thereby serve as triggers while the exposure data enable the assessment of the expected loss costs of such transactions. In addition, structured industry loss triggers can be designed which follow the protection buyer’s portfolio and thus reduce basis risk.”

What are your thoughts on this story? Feel free to comment below.