Put options that enable incorporated insurers to sell shares (equity) to capital market investors at pre-negotiated prices when catastrophe losses exceed the levels specified in the options. CatEPuts therefore provide insurers with access to additional equity in the wake of catastrophic losses. This is alternative risk financing by way of post-loss funding that obviates the need for the insurer to ‘sit on’ on large amounts of capital waiting for the loss event to occur and thereby improves the insurer’s return on assets. These instruments are also traded on the Chicago Board of Trade and the Bermuda Commodities Exchange.

a form of excess of loss reinsurance under which the ceding insurer is indemnified, subject to a specified retention and an over-riding limit, against an accumulation of losses arising from a catastrophic event (for example, an earthquake or hurricane).

Non-proportional reinsurance layer of cover with an excess point so high that the layer will only be affected by rare catastrophic losses.