Parametric insurance: plugging the gaps in business interruption cover

Gaps in SME business interruption cover have become a critical issue as the pandemic has wrought extensive trading disruption around the world. Alastair Speare-Cole, president and general manager of the Insurance Division of QOMPLX, outlines why parametric business is a powerful way to close some of these gaps.

Business interruption cover has been a hot topic since COVID-19 hit, with the pandemic making the owners of small medium enterprises (SMEs) painfully aware of the value of clearly defined, easy to understand coverage - but this was already a growing issue before coronavirus, according to Alastair Speare-Cole, president and general manager of the insurance division of QOMPLX. 

QOMPLX, which is taking part in an Intelligent Insurer webinar on parametric business interruption cover on July 21, has carved a niche providing small businesses with parametric insurance solutions addressing the coverage gap for cyber and terror. With a growing customer base in the UK and internationally, it has received an enthusiastic response from SMEs to improve, but also simplify, their cover.

“The underlying issue we had until recently was that for places like Borough High Street, in London, and the city of Salisbury – from a terrorism and political violence point of view –  there was no business interruption cover for the retailers that were affected, because there was no physical damage. So when a baker in Salisbury had a cordon around it for months, it was not addressed by traditional business interruption policies,” he says, adding that this has been a particular issue at the SME end of the market, where the approach to business interruption cover has been far from joined-up.