LONDON – 9 January 2020

– AkinovA, the electronic marketplace for the transfer and trading of re/insurance risk, successfully completed a first of its kind parametric cyber risk transfer on 23 December 2019.

This transaction was carried out electronically with full regulatory oversight from the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA). AkinovA has an Insurance Regulatory Sandbox licence that was issued by the BMA in May 2019.

Hiscox, a leading specialist re/insurer, developed, structured, and provided capital for this innovative transaction with Guy Carpenter, a leading global risk and reinsurance specialist and a business of Marsh & McLennan Companies, broking the transaction. This was a quarterly cyber parametric instrument. PCS, a Verisk business, is the reporting agent.

The trade was carried out using a standardised insurance contract created in 2019 by Hiscox in conjunction with AkinovA and industry participants. The wording was donated to ACORD, the global standards-setting body for the insurance and related financial services industries.

Paul Jardine, former Chief Experience Officer of XL Catlin and Non-Executive Director of AkinovA, commented:

‘This first of its kind transaction is an important step towards creating new capacity urgently needed to underwrite the huge cyber risks which continue to emerge globally. Largely rear view-mirror actuarial assessments of cyber risks can only go so far. For new capacity to come to the market, cyber risks have to be tradable and conducted electronically within a regulated marketplace. That’s why AkinovA was created.’