The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and QBE Asia have signed a collaboration agreement to advance building resilience and address the widening property insurance gap across the Asia Pacific region.
The partnership centres on the Building Resilience Index (BRI), a web-based hazard mapping and resilience assessment tool developed by IFC, with QBE Asia becoming the first insurer to join since the BRI pilot launched in 2021.
A central aim of the partnership is to promote adoption of the BRI across APAC and to broaden its reach to include homebuyers, financial institutions, and governments. Promotion of the BRI will include workshops and training sessions for both local and international stakeholders in markets such as Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam.
Product innovation will also be a core element of the collaboration.
“Together with third parties, IFC and QBE will collaborate on developing insurance products with favorable underwriting terms for buildings with superior BRI ratings, including broader coverage options, risk-driven and sustainable pricing, expedited claims processing, and parametric insurance solutions that provide rapid payouts based on predefined triggers,” the business said.
The two firms will also work together to explore ways to integrate each other’s risk-modelling tools to improve assessment capabilities.
Through these goals, IFC and QBE aim to help strengthen insurance products related to the design, construction, and operation of buildings.
“The frequency and severity of extreme weather events are placing unprecedented pressure on buildings and communities across Asia and the Pacific,” noted Katia Daude Gonçalves, Country Manager for Singapore and Brunei at IFC. “Together with QBE, we’re determined to help close the property insurance gap while promoting resilient development across the region.”
Ronak Shah, Chief Executive Officer of Wholesale Markets Asia at QBE, added that a key feature of the partnership is to “improve risk modelling by combining our data and technology.”
By both incentivising resilience and leveraging our technological capabilities, not only will we help build more resilience overall; we will also improve our own risk-taking capabilities as well,” Shah added.
The collaboration follows the BRI’s pilot launch in the Philippines and the subsequent implementation of the initiative across key markets in East Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and South Asia.
