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Specialist network · Insurance and banking

Insurance and banking

Insurers and banks are the traditional regulated balance sheets that absorb losses first: insurers through claims, banks through credit. This group of The Global Risks Alliance (GRA) sector platforms brings together two established communities, Insurance Nexus and Banking Nexus, each joining its sector with the science, technology, engineering and mathematics it relies on. The platforms publish evidence and are designed to convene professionals. They never underwrite, lend, advise or transact. This page is part of the specialist financial network.

01In brief

The short answer.

The insurance and banking group of GRA sector platforms brings together Insurance Nexus and Banking Nexus, the two established communities for the regulated balance sheets that absorb losses first: insurers through claims, banks through credit. They publish evidence and never underwrite, lend or advise; Reinsurance and Catastrophe and Actuarial and Quantitative Risk are in development.

02Spatial finance

A loan book under scenario families.

How physical and transition risk could reach a loan book under different scenarios. Illustrative design values.

A loan book across Europe under physical and transition risk.Design values; NGFS scenario names are labels only, not stress test results.
03The two platforms

Established communities, each at its own address.

Insurance

Insurance Nexus

Where losses are insured, where they are not, and why the gap grows. Exposure, accumulation and protection gaps across property, health and climate perils. Methods: actuarial mathematics, extreme value theory, probability and statistics, climate science and machine learning. Visit Insurance Nexus.

Banking

Banking Nexus

How physical and operational shocks reach credit portfolios, and how losses travel between banks through shared exposures and funding. Methods: financial economics, probability and statistics, network contagion, risk engineering and machine learning. Visit Banking Nexus.

04Where they meet

The insurance-credit link, in practice.

LinkMechanismStandards on each side
Insured collateralLenders require property cover; when cover is withdrawn or repriced, collateral quality and borrower affordability changeBasel credit risk and collateral rules; insurers' underwriting under ICPs or Solvency II
Insurers as investorsInsurers hold bank debt and fund private creditSolvency II spread risk; Basel large exposures
Bancassurance and shared operationsDistribution and technology shared across groupsConglomerate supervision; DORA and operational resilience rules
Mortgage portfolios in hazard zonesBoth sides hold correlated exposure to the same buildingsBCBS climate principles; IAIS climate application paper
05Spatial view

One map, two balance sheets.

Placing mortgage collateral and insured property on the same hazard grid shows where both sectors would take the hit from one event, and where insurance withdrawal would transfer risk to lenders. Work continues at Insurance Nexus and Banking Nexus.

06Shared questions

Where insurance and banking meet.

  1. 01

    Protection gaps and credit

    When cover is withdrawn or repriced, collateral loses protection and lenders carry more of the loss. The two sectors see the same event from opposite sides.

  2. 02

    Accumulation

    A single hazard, outage or provider failure can trigger claims and defaults across many portfolios at once. Measuring that correlation needs both sectors' perspectives.

  3. 03

    Model dependence

    Catastrophe models, credit models and vendor data are shared across institutions, so a model error can be a common error.

  4. 04

    Continuity

    Claims handling and payment services must keep running during the event that causes the losses.

07Boundaries

What these platforms never do.

  • Underwrite, sell, solicit, negotiate, place or broker cover
  • Lend, arrange or commit credit, or recommend a lender or insurer
  • Set or discuss prices, premiums, rates or terms offered to customers
  • Issue a rating, score or certificate for any institution, product or project

Because participants compete, platform work is designed around competition-law safeguards set out in a written competition policy that counsel reviews before membership opens.

08Connections

Related communities and evidence.

Two proposed communities are in development and not yet open: Reinsurance and Catastrophe and Actuarial and Quantitative Risk. Research for this group appears on catastrophe and protection gaps and financial stability analysis. Hazard evidence comes from The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI), including its insurance and catastrophe field. Other groups: investment and markets and sovereign and development finance.

09Key terms

Terms used on this page.

Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.

TermDefinition
Insurance Core PrinciplesThe IAIS's globally accepted framework for insurance supervision, setting the essential elements a supervisory system needs to promote a fair, safe and stable insurance sector.
Basel FrameworkThe full set of standards of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision for the prudential regulation of banks, covering capital, liquidity, leverage and supervisory review.
Insurance protection gapThe difference between economic losses and insured losses, for an event, a year or an expected annual figure.
11Questions

Questions and answers.

Are these platforms open for participation?
Both platforms are established and publish material. Working groups and learning open only when their terms and review capacity are in place. Register interest through membership and participation.
Can an insurer and a bank share data through a platform?
Not competitively sensitive data. Any industry data used in research is aggregated so that no firm can be identified, and used only within the rights granted.
Does Insurance Nexus help design insurance products?
No. It describes exposure, accumulation and protection gaps as evidence. Product design and pricing belong to licensed insurers.
Who publishes the platforms?
The Global Risks Alliance publishes both, as part of its specialist financial network.
The Global Risks Alliance

Start with an enquiry.

The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.