Willis commits $1 million to multi-party forum to address nat-cat risk, information could help with closing protection gap

Willis Group Holdings plc has announced a $1 million commitment from the global risk advisory and re/insurance broking firm to help mobilize a new multi-party Resilience Modelling and Mapping Forum that will focus on addressing natural catastrophe risk.

The announcement, delivered Wednesday evening by Dominic Casserley, CEO of Willis Group Holdings, was made to business leaders convened by BritishAmerican Business, a transatlantic business organization dedicated to helping companies build their business on both sides of the Atlantic.

“Natural catastrophes and their ravages are part of our world. It is, therefore, incumbent on us to take these growing threats much, much more seriously,” Casserley told those assembled. “It is also clear that today we have the means to address these perils in ways that are new and powerful,” he said, emphasizing that the forum “is an important part of this.”

With the aim being to increase risk understanding and resilience, the forum – which is a collaboration between the global re/insurance industry and other partners – was established to enable sharing of insurance risk modelling and stress testing tools and techniques with wider business and society.

Commenting that enormous progress has been made with regard to understanding and managing natural hazard risks over the last two decades, Casserley said (pictured right) the forum “will help open up risk evaluation and early warning systems to all, reducing the damage of extreme weather and helping institutions and communities to close the protection gap.”

Said Casserley, “For me, there is no more critical time than now for business leaders to collaborate creatively on the challenges our societies face. The task is urgent because the world is getting riskier.”