On March 4, NetDiligence® will host “Cyber ILS: Unlocking Capital Supply.” Sponsored by Kovrr, this webinar addresses an exciting growth opportunity – the expanded market for Cyber ILS (Insurance-Linked Securities) products. This week, NetDiligence® sat down with Yakir Golan, Kovrr CEO and Co-founder, to get a preview of this special event.
NetD: The presenters on this panel represent a vast store of industry expertise. But even more exciting than hearing from each individual is the opportunity to listen in on the exchange of ideas such a panel provides. What points of the upcoming conversation are you looking forward to most?
YG: I’m looking forward to discussing everything about Cyber ILS. There’s so much to say and learn, and it really hasn’t been overly covered. I see Cyber ILS as a strategic product that will also fuel the growth of the cyber insurance market. I’ve been involved in the development of advanced cyber risk modeling capabilities which are clearly essential for spearheading this growth opportunity. It will be interesting to hear other participants’ perspectives on how Cyber ILS can be used as a diversification tool from natural perils risks, how they believe the Cyber ILS market will develop, and how participants will choose to enter the market.
NetD: NetDiligence® typically sees a mix of insurance, legal, and forensic professionals at educational events. Would you say that this webinar is particularly geared to subset of that audience? Who should make this a “don’t miss” session?
YG: Obviously, this is a fascinating topic for all! But, it will be particularly useful for ILS fund managers, reinsurance brokers involved in ILS structuring, (re)insurance companies interested in issuing ILS instruments, and ILS investors.
NetD: The growth of a Cyber ILS market is a great opportunity. What is Kovrr doing to both create and capitalize on this growth?
YG: From the outset it was important for us to offer a more transparent approach to cyber risk models so that investors and fund managers could gain confidence in the data needed to enter a new class of business.
We’ve also introduced CRA-Zones™, an easy-to-use open framework to measure and understand catastrophic cyber risk exposure. We have a strong belief, after discussion with key market players, that CRA-Zones can serve as a strong starting point for ILS purposes. The CRA-Zones framework defines the minimal elements needed to provide a view of aggregated cyber exposure. CRA-Zones allow for analysis across multiple portfolios of risks and for monitoring of exposure trends.
Additionally, our model provides a stable and transparent pricing methodology which can be implemented simply as the core of the underwriting process. The model is effective at the insurance/reinsurance/retrocession levels and has been developed to provide accuracy and functionality across the range of data types. In other words, both aggregated and detailed data can be modeled.
NetD: From your personal place in the industry, what development or trend will you being keeping your eye on this year?
YG: We’ve experienced an influx of ransomware this year. I think the ransomware trend is extremely interesting to follow from two perspectives: how ransomware is developing as an attack vector and how ransomware is reflected within models. Vendors had specific biases and assumptions already built into their models regarding ransomware. In light of 2020 losses, it will be interesting to see how carriers back-test and validate their models and to discover whether the models will need to adapt following these tests.
NetD: Thank you, Yakir, for your time and your insights! We are all looking forward to the conversation on March 4, 2021 and we also want to thank Kovrr for sponsoring this event.
Register now for “Cyber ILS: Unlocking Capital Supply” by clicking here or catch the webinar on demand after March 4 using the same link.
