Pricing of insurance-linked securities: a multi-peril approach

Abstract

Abstract In this paper we build a methodology for pricing of insurance-linked securities which are tied to multiple natural catastrophe perils. As a representative example, we construct a multi-peril catastrophe (CAT) bond which can be linked to the industry loss indices or actual losses incurred by an insurer. We provide pricing formulas for such CAT bonds. We illustrate the introduced methodology on the US natural catastrophe data obtained from Property Claim Services (PCS). Within this dataset, we specifically examine two types of risks: losses associated with wind and thunderstorm events, and those linked to winter storm events. Then, we fit and validate the underlying compound non-homogeneous Poisson processes taking into account the fact that the data are left-truncated. The best fitted loss distributions appear to be Burr and Generalised Extreme Value and for the first peril and log-normal for the second. Finally, we visualise the zero-coupon CAT bond prices for the selected best-fitted models.

Keywords

• Insurance-linked security
• Catastrophe bond
• Arbitrage-free price
• Multiple perils
• Risk management