The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has hired Samantha Cook from the World Bank, who brings deep experience in disaster risk insurance arrangements, including parametric risk transfer and instruments such as catastrophe bonds.
The ADB is a financial institution that supports economic growth and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, with disaster risk financing and insurance an area of increasing activity and focus.
Cook’s role will see her working with ADB members on disaster risk management plans and strategies, including identifying and implementing financing and insurance solutions that can support their resilience.
This will include work on disaster insurance initiatives across the region for ADB members, such as parametric risk transfer and potentially catastrophe bonds.
The ADB has long stated that cat bonds are an instrument that can mobilise capital to support the disaster risk transfer needs of its members, while parametric solutions have already been implemented in some cases.
Cook spent almost thirteen years working at the World Bank in roles with a focus on disaster risk management, financing and insurance.
She began her career there in 2012 as an Economic Advisor to the World Bank Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Program, becoming a Senior Disaster Risk Financing Specialist in 2016.
In 2022, Cook moved into the role of Senior Financial Sector Specialist, Latin America and the Caribbean, where she continued to work in the disaster risk financing and insurance arena.
Cook commented on joining the ADB, “I’m joining an excellent team with a wealth of experience and I’m very much looking forward to contributing to the solutions to the ongoing challenges presented by climate and disaster risk in this beautiful part of the world.”
The ADB has been exploring the potential to assist its members in accessing the capital markets for disaster risk insurance and financing using catastrophe bonds for a number of years. We first covered its views on insurance-linked securities well over a decade ago and in 2019 the ADB highlighted their potential to be an important piece of the disaster risk financing toolkit again.
That same year, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) began helping members utilise catastrophe triggered contingent disaster financing instruments, while the following year it also launched its first pilot disaster insurance scheme in the Philippines.
More recently, in 2023, the ADB considered catastrophe bonds and other parametric solutions in drawing up plans for implementation of a disaster risk insurance facility for the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) countries.
Earlier this year, we also saw the first ever cat bond issuance to utilise bonds issued by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as collateral assets.
In her time at the World Bank, Cook has been involved in the design, implementation and roll-out of parametric insurance risk pools and also worked on projects for countries utilising catastrophe bonds.
Her work was instrumental in the design and launch of the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company, a parametric catastrophe risk pool for that region.
In addition, Cook has recently worked with the Pacific Alliance exploring flood risk and with Mexico on its catastrophe bond renewals.
She brings additional expertise in this area to the Asian Development Bank now, as it continues to help its members increase the sophistication of their disaster risk financing and insurance arrangements.
