Protection gaps
Promoting access to and affordability of insurance has been a priority topic for the IAIS since the adoption of the access agenda in 2006 – see also our dedicated page on financial inclusion. Over the past few years, the IAIS also extended its work on developing the role that supervisors can play in addressing protection gaps, collaborating with partners to develop supporting materials focused on pandemic and natural catastrophe protection gaps.
At its essence, insurance exists to build societal resilience by offering risk management, pooling and diversification of risk and mitigation of adversities. Insurance needs to deliver on this purpose, especially for vulnerable elements of society, through inclusive insurance markets characterised by product design, distribution and servicing which meets consumers’ needs, addresses protection gaps and treats customers fairly.
Therefore, the current IAIS Strategic Plan includes a strategic theme of “Supporting insurance to serve its societal purpose of building resilience”. Our work on protection gaps feeds into this theme.
IAIS work on NatCat protection gaps
The current focus of the IAIS related to protection gaps is on natural catastrophes (NatCat). Increasing damage and economic losses from NatCat events are widening protection gaps and could have potential systemic ramification by causing strain on economies and government budgets.
Insurance, including reinsurance, should be a key element of comprehensive disaster risk financing strategies in managing the physical risk and financial impacts of NatCat events, supporting recovery efforts, and promoting resilience.
Collaborative work
Given the cross-cutting nature of protection gaps, a comprehensive risk management approach involving diverse stakeholders is essential to reduce economic losses and promote sustainable insurance-based solutions. To this end, the IAIS is actively working with partners to develop guiding materials that foster multi-stakeholder collaboration in addressing protection gaps. In the context of NatCat protection gap, these partners include the FSI, G7, G20, OECD, and the World Bank Group.
For instance, in 2024, the IAIS collaborated with the OECD to provide input to the G7 on the role of public-private insurance programmes. And in 2025, the IAIS – together with the World Bank Group – developed an input paper for the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group (SFWG) on identifying and addressing natural catastrophe (NatCat) protection gaps. The paper recognises that NatCat protection gaps are a global challenge, affecting both advanced and emerging market and developing economy (EMDEs) jurisdictions, and therefore require global responses. The input paper serves as a “guide for action” to help jurisdictions narrow NatCat insurance protection gaps. The paper outlines practical and implementable actions that governments, supervisors, and the insurance industry can take, with a particular focus on EMDEs.
Recent and upcoming events
- 17 July 2025, G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors side event on addressing the natural catastrophe insurance protection gap. Recording available here: G20 YouTube.
- 10 July 2025, IAIS Global Seminar 2025, panel session on natural catastrophe protection gaps.
- December 2024, IAIS Annual Conference (2024) — Societal role of insurance.
Related
documents
PGTF practical resources on NatCat protection gaps (under development)
The IAIS Protection Gaps Task Force (PGTF) is developing a modular, practical resource to support supervisors and policymakers, particularly in EMDE jurisdictions, in identifying and addressing NatCat insurance protection gaps.
Drawing on inputs from PGTF members and the IAIS-World Bank work for the G20, the deliverable comprises three core components:
- NatCat initiatives library: a searchable library of jurisdictional and regional initiatives to enable peer exchange and quick discovery of illustrative practices.
- Case studies: concise and practice oriented deep dives linked to the library, highlighting approaches to assessing protection gaps and to designing and implementing public-private insurance programmes (PPIPs).
- Central hub of information and training: a landing page that connects users to key topics, decision-focused guidance, with links to relevant training and partner resources.
The initial scope focuses on two areas: (i) Assess protection gaps; and (ii) Design and implementation of Public–Private Insurance Programmes (PPIPs).
Content is being curated and validated with contributors to ensure accuracy and neutrality. The first tranche is planned to be made publicly available on the IAIS website in Q3 2026, with additional modules to follow in line with IAIS planning and member priorities.
For more information or to express interest in contributing examples or peer review, please contact alistair.gough@iais.org and federica.mazzoni@iais.org.
Financial stability
Capacity building
Natural catastrophes assessment tool
To help supervisors assess the potential materiality of NatCat risks and how climate change may impact them, the IAIS commissioned CLIMADA Technologies to develop a tool based on CLIMADA, an open source global NatCat model covering the key climate-related insurance NatCat perils. This tool provides IAIS members with estimates of the NatCat damages at different return periods at a country and US state level, as well as average annual loss (AAL) across more than 250 individual territories using the LitPop global high-resolution asset exposure dataset. In addition, the tool provides estimates about how climate change may impact the above metrics by 2030, 2050 and 2080 under Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 8.5 (the pathway with the highest assumed greenhouse gas emissions) and based on unchanged exposure.
IAIS members have free and unlimited access to the tool and are encouraged to reach out to Miroslav Petkov for further information.