Government-backed re-insurance put on hold
A proposal to create a government-backed pandemic insurance scheme Pandemic Re in Britain has been put on the back burner; meanwhile, insurers across the world are asking governments for help
Reuters reports that Pandemic Re steering committee chairman Stephen Catlin said he had hoped in early June that a launch would be possible in 2021.
Catlin spoke at the Reuters Events’ Future of Insurance Europe conference. He said: “As time went on, it became clear that the complexity was going to slow it down.”
He added that governments are ‘understandably consumed with the here and now’ but action is needed. “Otherwise, we land in the same mess we are in today all over again.”
Insurers worldwide are asking for support
Insurers around the globe are asking governments for help to protect businesses against losses from future pandemics, as they say the potential losses are too great for them to cover alone.
German insurance association (GDV) Head Joerg Asmussen also told the conference that talks over a similar pandemic scheme in Germany have shifted to the back burner.
Meanwhile, reinsurer Swiss Re’s head of Middle East and Africa has said that pandemics are uninsurable risks, unless governments are willing to lend a hand. He told news agency The Africa Report that Swiss Re was keen to strike up public-private partnerships with governments to help provide businesses with cover that insured them against pandemics. “We can’t do it alone,” he said.