Citizens approves $3.9bn cover

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the not-for-profit government entity created by the Florida Legislature in 2002, has approved a $3.9 billion risk transfer package for the 2015 hurricane season.

Citizens said the package, which includes $1.9 billion in traditional reinsurance and $2.1 billion in capital market catastrophe bonds, completely eliminates the potential assessment risk on Florida policyholders in the event of a one-in-100 year storm.

It also includes an additional $300 million in capital market coverage that can be tapped to pay losses following a named storm.

The package represents an increase of $636.5 million from the $3.269 billion in reinsurance protections secured for the 2014 hurricane season.

Chris Gardner, Citizens chairman, said: “Eliminating the risk of assessments on Citizens customers and Florida policyholders has been the top priority for Citizens over the past several years and I’m happy to announce that we have reached that goal. As the private market continues to strengthen, Citizens gets closer and closer to returning to its traditional role as the state’s residual carrier.”