Pool Re publishes fourth Terrorism Frequency Report to strengthen industry understanding of the peril
NEWS RELEASE – 13 March 2019
Pool Re, Britain’s leading terrorism reinsurer, has announced the publication of its fourth Terrorism Frequency Report, a quarterly view of the contemporary threat which is produced by the Terrorism Risk and Analysis Centre (TRAC) – the in-house expert analysis team at Pool Re.
As well as a survey of recent terrorist attacks in the UK and globally, the report includes analysis and views from the TRAC team and external experts including Sir Mark Rowley QPM, who was until 2018 the former national head of counter terrorism policing. Sir Mark reflects on the scale and intensity of the current threat and discusses what this means for the insurance and risk management sectors. “Terrorism is increasing, it moves faster,” he writes, “and is harder to detect.”
There is further in-depth analysis of how the changing terrorist threat, including the proliferation of low complexity attacks, could impact the (re)insurance industry. Many more businesses, in particular SMEs, may be exposed than previously, and the relative anonymity or remoteness from symbolic targets are now less likely to shelter companies from the effects – direct or indirect – of a terrorist attack. The Pool Re report examines how the recent introduction of non-damage business interruption coverage for denial of access to premises or loss of attraction will help Members strengthen their insureds’ resilience.
Commenting on the report, Ed Butler, Pool Re chief resilience officer, said: “Pool Re remains committed to improving the industry’s understanding of the threat posed by all forms of terrorism, and this report is an important part of our development of an ecosystem of expertise and knowledge. We continue to look at ways of designing, promoting and sharing protective security best practice among our Members and their insureds. Our aim remains to encourage the market to take on more of their share of terrorism risk and they will only do so if they have a comprehensive understanding of it. Improved knowledge of the threat, coupled with incentives such as Loss Mitigation Credits, will lead to greater take up by businesses which, in turn, will deliver sustainable resilience to terrorist attacks.”
The report also includes a synopsis of a larger study into the impact of the Manchester Arena attack on the small business community.
The Terrorism Frequency Report is available here.
Image: Counter Terrorist Response Level MOD (Wikimedia Commons)
