140: Cat bonds in public sector & sovereign risk transfer panel - Artemis ILS Asia 2023

This panel discussion took place at the Artemis ILS Asia 2023 conference in Singapore on July 13th.

This session discussed the role of catastrophe bonds and trends in public sector and sovereign risk transfer, under the watch of moderator Alex Pui, Executive Manager, Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

The panellists taking part were: Scott McHardy, Head of Risk Finance, Toka Tū Ake EQC; Esther Kim, Senior Product Manager, Public Sector Solutions, Swiss Re; Michael Bennett, Head of Derivatives & Structured Finance, World Bank Treasury.

The panel session discussed the use of catastrophe bonds in public sector and sovereign risk transfer and the potential for that to increase, with specific relevance to the Asia Pacific region.

The group discussed specific use-cases for cat bonds in public and sovereign risk transfer.

They also explored the broader potential for use of insurance-linked securities (ILS) capacity within these risk transfer arrangements

With a catastrophe bond sponsor on the panel, as well as the World Bank, there was a robust discussion on the benefits of cat bond protection and of bringing the capital markets into catastrophe insurance and reinsurance programmes.

Listen to the full podcast episode to learn more about the use of catastrophe bonds within public sector and sovereign risk transfer programmes.