CatIQ acquired by Switzerland-based PERILS

Zurich, Switzerland-based PERILS AG announced Monday that it has acquired Catastrophe Indices & Quantification Inc. (CatIQ).

Established in 2014, CatIQ is widely recognized as the most reliable source of catastrophe loss and exposure information in Canada. PERILS, a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, is an independent organization that provides industry-wide natural catastrophe exposure and event loss data.

CatIQ will continue to be managed day-to-day by Joel Baker, CEO and founder, PERILS said in a press release. Laura Twidle will continue to lead the CatIQ team as managing director.

CatIQ will maintain its 11-member advisory board, which includes senior representatives from six major Canadian primary writers and global reinsurers on a rotational basis, as well as permanent representatives from Aon, Guy Carpenter, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), the Institute for Catastrophe Loss Reduction (ICLR) and the federal government’s Environment and Climate Change Canada department. It will also continue to hold events such as the annual CatIQ Connect Conference, which is conducted in partnership with MSA Research Inc.

CatIQ collects event loss and exposure data from the majority of the Canadian insurance market and provides an independent industry exposure and loss database. The data are primarily used by (re)insurers, insurance-linked securities funds, intermediaries and modellers for market benchmarking, catastrophe risk model validation, and as triggers in industry loss-based risk transfer products.

Luzi Hitz, CEO of PERILS, said “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 specialized risk transfer market.”

Twidle said there is an almost seamless fit between PERILS and CatIQ in terms of the activities they conduct and the cultures they operate. “Our industry mandates are perfectly aligned and by coming together our market proposition becomes even more appealing to the global insurance industry.”

In 2017, PERILS entered into a strategic alliance with CatIQ to provide industry loss data for Canada. Under that alliance, PERILS made available loss data for any nat cat event in Canada causing a market loss of $300 million or more, such as earthquakes, floods, various types of storms and wildfires, the two organizations said at the time.

“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,” Baker said.