Securitizing pandemic‐risk insurance

Catastrophe (CAT) bonds are a means to share economic losses resulting from natural disasters including hurricanes, earthquakes, and—more recently, as used by the World Bank—pandemics. Because these pandemic CAT (PCAT) bonds were subsidized by government donations and, absent the occurrence of covered pandemics, were full recourse to the World Bank, this precedent was not market‐tested for the commercial viability of such instruments. This paper examines PCAT bonds as a means of securitization for pandemic risk through the lenses of reinsurers′ unmet capital needs and the requirements for the potential viability of a PCAT‐bond market. Where the reinsurance market has limited capacity to either absorb or spread the risks of global‐level CATs, risk securitization may be effective for layered risk sharing. The authors explore whether pandemic risk may be insurable by increasing reinsurance capacity to handle losses from business interruptions that are due to unintentional pandemics. Are PCAT bonds a potential means to achieving this protection? Historically, insurers were reluctant to enter this market because the required spreads and associated bond‐issuance expenses were considered prohibitively high. The situation has improved, although there remains much room and need for growth in this market.