Scaling Parametric Insurance in Asia

Parametric insurance has attracted growing interest across Asia as a potential tool to address protection gaps and strengthen financial resilience against natural catastrophes, climate risks, and other emerging challenges. Yet many initiatives do not progress beyond the pilot stage.

This paper examines the supervisory, market and operational factors shaping uptake across macro, meso and micro levels. The research suggests that regulatory permission is generally present. More persistent constraints often lie elsewhere – uncertain demand, trusted distribution, availability and credibility of data and triggers, institutional preparedness for payout and non-payout outcomes, and ability to retain support and renew over time.

Building on the findings from Scaling Parametric Insurance in Asia, the GAIP Parametric Framework translates the evidence into five interconnected diagnostic layers: Possibility, Necessity, Survivability, Trust and Durability. The framework synthesises the key insights from the research into a structured approach for assessing the conditions that may influence the viability and sustainability of parametric insurance initiatives.

Together, the papers provide evidence and a structured way to examine whether parametric insurance addresses a clear need, why an initiative may remain a pilot, and what conditions may affect its ability to continue through real events and renewal cycles.

In addition to the two public papers, GAIP Partners receive exclusive access to a set of jurisdiction-level syntheses, with one covering each of the ten Asian jurisdictions examined in the study. These are available through the partner login area.

Authors: Daniel McGree, Zhan Xiong Yeo

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