PERILS, a Swiss provider of industry-wide catastrophe insurance data, has acquired Canada-based Catastrophe Indices & Quantification (CatIQ) for an undisclosed price.
Image: CatIQ is a provider information on catastrophe loss and exposure in Canada. Photo: courtesy of Michelle Maria/Pixabay.
Founded in 2014, CatIQ provides information on catastrophe loss and exposure in Canada. The company is said to gather event loss and exposure data from the majority of the insurance market in Canada and offers an independent industry exposure and loss database.
The data are mainly used by re/insurers, intermediaries, insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds and modellers for market benchmarking, validation of catastrophe risk models, and also as triggers in industry-loss-based risk transfer products.
The Canadian company also works with various public bodies, and also with The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR), and other industry organisations. CatIQ caters to the needs of the organisations through its online subscription-based platform, which combines insured loss and exposure indices and other related information.
PERILS CEO Luzi Hitz said: “The firm’s excellent market reputation and steadfast commitment to enhancing the industry’s understanding of Cat risk has enabled it to secure the support of the majority of the Canadian general insurance market.
“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.”
Headquartered in Zurich, PERILS offers its industry exposure and loss database through annual subscription, which contains industry property sums insured and event loss information for 15 countries.
The Swiss company said that CatIQ will continue to be managed by its CEO and founder Joel Baker while its managing director Laura Twidle will be leading the team as before.
Baker said: “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.
“Today’s announcement 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. This is truly a win-win-win situation for all parties involved – CatIQ, PERILS and most importantly our clients.”