The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (
RBNZ) will conduct a brief survey of licensed insurers on their processes and governance of assessing their catastrophe exposures. These exposures may arise by means of natural or man-made disasters, pandemics, and accumulation of risks across multiple policies, among others.
The survey was designed to give RBNZ insight on how insurers are prudently managing their exposures to catastrophe risks, and to assess the need for regular reporting of catastrophe exposures beyond the limited data currently collected. RBNZ also considers running a follow up survey in 2017.
The survey will explore how New Zealand entities have assessed exposure to catastrophe losses for any financial year. The analysis may have been implemented for the purposes which include informing decisions for reinsurance for that financial year; and for calculating solvency for RBNZ and/or other regulators at the end of the previous financial year.
The Reserve Bank will soon issue section 121 for this survey to relevant insurers. A copy of the survey can be found on RBNZ’s
supervision of insurers webpage. The deadline for completed surveys is on 28 February 2017.
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