CCRIF Makes First Two Payouts of 2023 Atlantic Hurricane Season

CCRIF SPC made its first payouts of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, with two payouts totaling $3.4 million to the governments of Antigua and Barbuda and the British Virgin Islands following Tropical Storm Phillipe.

Philippe made landfall on Antigua and Barbuda on October 2 and passed near the British Virgin Islands on October 4, causing heavy rains and flooding in both countries.

The payouts under the two countries' parametric insurance policies for excess rainfall included more than $2.8 million to Antigua and Barbuda and $552,297 to the British Virgin Islands. The payout to the British Virgin Islands was the country's first from CCRIF. The payout to Antigua and Barbuda was that country's third, following Tropical Cyclone Irma in 2017 and an excess rainfall event in 2022.

Previously known as the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility Segregated Portfolio Company, CCRIF SPC is a segregated portfolio company that is owned, operated, and registered in the Caribbean. It limits the financial impact of such disasters as catastrophic hurricanes, earthquakes, and excess rainfall events on Caribbean and Central American governments by quickly providing short-term liquidity when a parametric insurance policy is triggered.

CCRIF's parametric insurance was specifically designed to cover high-intensity, low-frequency events and provide quick liquidity within 14 days of an event if a policy is triggered.

The two most recent payouts bring the total of CCRIF payouts since its inception in 2007 to $265 million, with 62 payouts to 17 of CCRIF's 26 members.

CCRIF SPC was developed under the technical leadership of the World Bank and with a grant from the government of Japan. It was capitalized through contributions to a multidonor trust fund by the government of Canada, the European Union, the World Bank, the governments of the United Kingdom and France, the Caribbean Development Bank, and the governments of Ireland and Bermuda, as well as through membership fees paid by participating governments.