Catastrophe Bonds: Sharing the Risk of Natural Disasters

Knowledge@Australian School of Business - Video Interviews

The cost of the devastation from Australia's recent natural disasters is still being counted. Floods in Victoria and severe storms on both sides of the country, along with the earthquake damage in New Zealand, have impacted on the lives of thousands. Strangely enough, these events often occur in clusters which means insurers are also hard hit. But, these days insurance companies can transfer their risk to the capital markets through catastrophe bonds. With these relatively new assets increasing in popularity, Julian Lorkin of Knowledge@Australian School of Business asks Morton Lane, head of the financial engineering program at the University of Illinois, about insurers' latest means of passing on risk.