Parametric insurtech Descartes Underwriting announced plans to broaden its climate and emerging risk parametric offerings across Mexico and Latin America. The expansion will be supported from a new office in Mexico City.
Francisco Javier Herrera Escalante has been appointed as the country manager. Previously, he served as general manager at reinsurance broker Crest and held management roles at Chubb and Marsh.
Leveraging our in-house AI-powered proprietary models algorithms backed by the latest scientific research and long-term climate data to unlock risk insights and provide state-of-the-art robust insurance solutions to our clients and carriers.
Francisco Javier Herrera Escalante
Interest in parametric covers is growing among brokers and corporate clients in Latin America, especially for agriculture, tropical cyclones, renewable energy, and earthquakes, according to Descartes.
In response to the growing protection gap, this new generation of insurance products offers valuable insurance capacity at reasonable premiums, even in highly exposed regions and for clients with a history of catastrophe losses. As a standalone cover or as a complement to existing policies, Descartes’ parametric solutions create a more resilient future for clients facing severe underinsurance or self-insurance.
Daniel Vetter, head of the Americas, expressed excitement about expanding further into the region. He emphasized that Herrera’s market expertise and established relationships will be crucial for developing Descartes’ platform.
Descartes has already provided over $10 bn of capacity through brokers for various climate, cyber, and emerging risks. The insurtech also launched a full-stack insurer for climate risks in France in 2022, aiming to expand its presence across Europe.
Insurtech collaborate closely with clients and brokers to establish objective parameters and bespoke payout structures, eliminating ambiguity about when, how, and how much the policy will pay out. Plus, with the transparent compensation index, payments can be made quickly and with complete certainty, no longer requiring on-site loss adjustment and avoiding depreciation and inflation from delayed payments.
“With flexible and bespoke solutions that pay out based on predefined triggering events, rather than actual incurred losses, insured clients enjoy full financial freedom to use the received capital for any direct or indirect expenses resulting from the event”, Daniel Vetter noted.
Instead of meticulously proving and invoicing incurred damages over several months, a straightforward declaration of loss is sufficient to access the indemnity within days.
