On June 19th, the Institute for Insurance Supervision (IVASS) published the results of a market survey on policies covering catastrophic risks available on the Italian market.
The survey arises in compliance with the obligation introduced by the 2024 Budget Law, which requires companies to take out insurance coverage against catastrophic risks within December 31, 2024. These risks include (i) earthquakes, (ii) floods, (iii) landslides, (iv) inundations and (v) floodings.
The analysis was conducted on 46 policies available in January 2024, issued by 14 different insurance companies, without taking into account of the cost-effectiveness or their commercial success.
According to the study, in the Italian market, this type of policy is mostly linked to “fire and property damage” coverage and the coverage offered is heterogeneous and varied.
For this reason, IVASS published the following considerations:
- The definition of natural disasters should be broad and unambiguous;
- It would be useful to provide a clear definition of “building code violations and construction lacking the required authorizations”;
- Solutions to enable policyholders to meet the costs for emergency initiatives useful for safety should be studied;
- Insurance companies may consider to provide more favourable insurance terms and premiums to reward and encourage virtuous behaviours by policyholders that aim at mitigating or adapting to climate change.