New approaches to managing catastrophic insurance risk

Abstract

Insurance and financial markets are converging as (re-)insurers are searching for new ways of expanding their underwriting capacities and managing their risk exposures. Catastrophe-linked instruments have already established themselves as a new asset class which offers unique profit and diversification opportunities for the investor community. This chapter analyzes the principal forces behind the securitization of catastrophic insurance risk and thereby highlights key factors which determine to what extent and with what means other forms of insurance risks (in particular other types of property & casualty, longevity, health and weather risks) can be transferred to financial markets in the future. © 2005 Springer Berlin · Heidelberg.