GeoMEP project.

The second issue of our digital magazine 'Consorseguros' aims to maintain the line marked out in terms of diversity and immediacy of content, always related to matters in some way linked to the activity of the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS).

From time to time an earthquake of perceptible magnitude causing damage of different kinds and severity strikes our country, calling to mind that Spain, though not one of the most earthquake prone, still has a history of experiencing seismic shocks, some of considerable intensity. The main article in this volume four of our bulletin reviews the major tremors that have hit the Iberian Peninsula.

In this autumn 2016 issue of the Consorseguros Digital magazine, our intention is once again to examine the intersection between natural risk knowledge, its management and the management of the financial consequences of such risks from the perspective of an insurance institution.

There is broad consensus on the premise that the global trend towards a higher incidence of damage caused by natural catastrophes observed to date has more to do with the increase in the properties exposed to the risk and their value than to an increase in the hazard level of these catastrophes. Therefore, the guiding theme in the majority of the contributions contained in this issue involves an examination of the many aspects of these concepts of exposure and vulnerability.

This is the first issue of the digital magazine CONSORSEGUROS and its publication marks a new way for the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros to show its presence within the wider context of Spanish and international insurance.

The Canary Island archipelago is a virtually unparalleled natural laboratory, not just for its geological origin or climate but also for the natural processes that take place as a result of the two. A third element, high population density combined with tourist appeal, makes the islands an ideal site for studying all manner of geological hazards.

The Iberian Peninsula is located in a convergence zone between the African and Eurasian plates. This convergence, with movement rates of between 2 and 5 mm/year in the NW-SE to WNW-ESE directions, conditions the general seism tectonics of the zone.

The New Zealand Earthquake Commission (EQC), the New Zealand public scheme to provide insurance cover against geological hazards, working in close cooperation with the private sector, had to face between 2010 and 2011 one of the biggest challenges for a catastrophe scheme: the Canterbury earthquake sequence.

Agricultural insurance has a long track record in Spain, permanently seeking solutions that provide a balance between protection for farmers and insurance technique.

The effects of warming are not limited just to an increase in the mean temperature; rather, the variation in the chemical composition of the atmosphere also entails a multitude of impacts on other climate system components, namely, precipitation and the precipitation pattern, atmospheric circulation, the frequency and strength of extreme weather events, and indeed all the ecological and economic systems that are affected by or depend on these.

In May 2016 the Conference on the financial management of flood risk was held at OECD's headquarters in Paris, with the attendance of world leading experts and actors in this field.

Causes of dispute and types of claims in the insurance field. Methods of out-of-court dispute resolution in the insurance field. Proposed rules in the insurance field.

The Norwegian natural catastrophe compensation system not only covers losses from natural catastrophes, but also supports research and studies to prevent and reduce risks in the near future, such as climate change.

The world of risks and their cover, from de perspective of international company, constitute a true challenge of complex management.

The importance of the foreign sector for economies is capital, as it is a powerful driving force of growth and employment. As in the rest of the most advanced countries, the coverage by the Spanish State of the risks inherent to the operations of Spanish companies outside of Spain constitutes an essential instrument of trade policy.

The Caisse Centrale de Réassurance [Central Reinsurance Fund (French abbreviation: CCR)] is a reinsurance company whose mandate is to design, put in practice, and manage efficient instruments that respond to the need for coverage of catastrophic risk and thereby serve its clients and the general welfare.

Given the extent of the damage caused by the Lorca earthquake, the scale of reconstruction required greatly exceeds the mere re-erection of its buildings.

The 1910 Paris flood not only produced serious damage but it had a profound impact on the collective consciousness at the time, bearing in mind the context of enthusiasm for great industrial progress in which it occurred.

This article describes the time evolution of flooding events monitoring and control in the Ebro River Basin (NE Spain) and how the current Automatic Hydrological Information System and Decision-Making Assistance System allow for reservoir manoeuvres reducing flood risk significantly.

The Paris Climate Change Conference (30 November - 12 December 2015) capped the work of five years of negotiations with the adoption of the Paris Agreement, a historic agreement in the fight against climate change.

Both in the past and present, very few writers make or have made a living solely from literature.

Two reports forecasting the expected repercussions of the impacts of climate change to different sectors of the economy have recently been published.

Two papers are presented here from The Policy Research Working Papers series, prepared in the framework of the Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Program (DRFIP) of the World Bank Group - Finance and Markets Global Practice Group and published in June 2016. The aim of this working group is to encourage an exchange of ideas on economic development issues.

Analizing the risks we are dealing with is not an easy task in a context of increasing complexity on all levels.

Review of a report of the rating agency A.M. Best on the different options in Europe for catastrophic risks insurance and how each of them tries to solve the various problems arising to this kind of insurance.

Fundación MAPFRE has just published History of Insurance in Spain. This is an important book because, as it says in the Introduction entrusted to its Chairman, Antonio Huertas, it fills a gap in this country's historical bibliography.

Comments on judgments and reviews of case law relating to the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS).

In the first part of this book the author traces the history of civil liability for motor vehicles and the corresponding insurance from the beginning years early last century up to our time. The second part of the book considers key aspects of civil liability for motor vehicles and the corresponding insurance.

The Asociación Española de Gerencia de Riesgos y Seguros (AGERS) [Spanish Association of Insurance and Risk Management] presented its Natural Disasters Handbook this past 2 December 2015.

A number of legal provisions at different stages in the parliamentary process are going to have a significant impact on the insurance sector and, in particular, on the activity of the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS).

The judgment of Chamber One of the Supreme Court dated 5 September 2011 settles the controversy that previously persisted concerning whether or not the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros was required to post deposits on appeal pursuant to Article 449.3 of the Code of Civil Procedure [Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil (LEC)]...

Limitation of actions. Period of limitation for claims arising from road accidents when these take place within the territory of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia.

The judgement which we are commenting upon analyses a case of the right of recourse exercised by the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS) against an insurance company, on account of a payment made by the former in a situation of controversy foreseen in article 11.1 d) of the Motor Vehicle Civil Liability and Insurance Act (LRCSCVM).

The Third International Meeting on Terrorism Risk Insurance was held in Washington D.C. on 10 September 2014, at the headquarters of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, under the title: Terrorism Risk Insurance: a Global Perspective. Where Do We Go From Here?

A number of important new developments have entered into effect starting on 1 July 2016, with respect to the legislation regulating the activity of the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS), which significantly benefit all of the insured who take out automobile insurance policies, regardless of the greater or lesser degree of the coverage they decide to contract.

This Spring 2017 issue of "Consorseguros Digital" devotes special attention to one of the significant functions of the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS): the protection of the insureds affected by cases of insurance company insolvency.

This issue makes a quite extensive examination of questions associated with automobile insurance. Dr Carlos Represas signs an article on the assessment of bodily harm in road accidents, and Juan Luis de Miguel, Deputy Director of Centro Zaragoza, explains the pioneering activity of this centre on the cutting edge of the research on subjects relating to vehicles and their insurance.

The purpose of this new Register is to furnish systematic, general, up to date, information to the public regarding the types of insurance that are required in order to be able to carry on certain business activities.

This article looks at the key features of the Spanish system for winding-up of insurers, which is handled by the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS). It describes its historical background and the reasons which led to its establishment, as well as the procedures and mechanisms it uses, and the legal context in which it operates. It also includes an assessment of the period of more than 30 years over which the system has functioned and some thoughts going forward.

Far from the existence of a universal solution, the countries with policyholder protection schemes in situations of insurer insolvency -and not all countries have them, not even in the European context- address this issue with a heterogeneous range of solutions.

The last financial crisis laid bare the need to develop a new and effective framework for institutions that not only operate within the compass of the European Union but further afield too. In this context the resolution system has improved substantially and meant the introduction of a new raft of legislation whereby the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) and the Single Resolution Fund (SRF) were established within the orbit of the banking union.

Terrorism methods and objectives have evolved. Insuring for this risk should also adapt to such changing circumstances. Given fresh challenges, and to share experiences among the various different systems of cover and examine alternatives, the International Forum for Terrorism Risk (Re)Insurance Pools (IFTRIP) has come into being. This article describes the circumstances and process behind the creation of IFTRIP from the standpoint of the experience of Pool Re, which is the British pool for terrorism risk insurance.

Based on the compensation paid by Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros with regard to property damage caused by hydrometeorological causes (strong wind and flood) and on the sums at risk, a projection has been made for the next 30 years using certain assumptions so as to arrive to an approximation of the capacity of the extraordinary risk insurance scheme to cater for with the expected increase in hazardousness owing to climate change.

The Directorate-General for Civil Protection and Emergencies has released the results of a study of tsunami risk hazardousness along the Spanish coastline. This is a preliminary study aimed at developing more in-depth risk management plans and studies at  regional and local government level, yet which can provide useful information on this thusfar relatively unknown risk.

The judgment in discussion refers to the effectiveness in relation to the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS) of agreements between the policyholder and their insurer in cases where the premium is not paid in the one-month grace period and the insurance contract between the parties has been suspended pursuant to article 15.2 of the Insurance Contracts Act.

As a result of an agreement among several Spanish institutions, a tool has been produced known as the Catalogue of Earthquake Damage in Spain (CDTE for the Spanish), which is intended to provide a unified record for damage caused by earthquakes with a seismic strength of greater than or equal to VI (EMS-98) in Spanish territory.

A day-long course on seismic risk and earthquake damage was held in the Community of Valencia during the month of September, addressing the issue both from the point of view of prevention as well as in the context of post-earthquake intervention.

The feature article in this third issue of our magazine is devoted to a detailed exposition of the application in Spain of the Royal Decree for the assessment and management of flood risks.

At the end of September 2018, the CCS organised the 12th meeting of the WFCP in Madrid, and that important event constitutes the central axis around which the ninth issue of the Consorseguros Digital magazine revolves. Another important group of articles in this issue relates to automobile insurance, another of the major areas of activity of the CCS beyond catastrophic risks.

Consorseguros Digital Magazine goes green in this 10^th issue, of spring 2019, in order to approach, from multiple viewpoints, the matter of environmental liability and its insurability.

Between the 10^th and the 15^th of September 2019, a closed upper-level low (a "cut-off low"), a high-level atmospheric depression cut off from the jet stream circumpolar current which, on becoming positioned over the Mediterranean Sea, warm after absorbing all of the summer heat, brought about a situation of intense rainfall over the entire southeast quadrant of the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, which was especially torrential in the provinces of Murcia and Alicante.

We have already been working on prevention for several years but perhaps, given that in the last few months of 2019 and those coming into this year we have had to cope with a great many losses from natural events, such as the major low-pressure areas that have caused huge floods, the need for prevention has been put into even sharper perspective.

The Extraordinary Risk Statistics is one of the longest standing annual publications issued by the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS). The 2020 release contains data for the period 1971-2019. This publication is a basic information source and indeed provides an X-ray of damage caused by the so-called 'extraordinary' risks in Spain.

The reader faces the 14th issue of our digital magazine, in which new items related to the main actors dealing with the management of risks aligned with the activities and functions of Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS) are presented. These actors have important roles in both catastrophic risk and automobile insurance.

The last September 19^th 2021, Nature reminded us that we are on a living planet, in which no element, as permanent as it might seem, is static. And it also reminded us that the Canary Islands owe their very existence to a very long succession of events just like the one that started that very day along the Cumbre Vieja Ridge in the Island of La Palma, along not too many millions of years, compared to other geological processes.

Since storm Klaus in 2009, we have entered a phase in which heavy loss events are not merely incidental. Moreover, out of the seven events which have represented the most consequential claims experiences since Klaus, six of them are among the 10 most substantial in terms of cost for extraordinary risk insurance over the past 50 years.

The extensive experience of Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS), within the scope of the Extraordinary Risk Insurance has implied having to cope, in many occasions, with losses in unique properties and assets, normally of a cultural nature, such as historic buildings, works of art, libraries and others.

We devote this eighteenth issue of Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros' (CCS') on-line magazine to review some current topics that we deem relevant for the insurance industry.

Last August marked the 40^th anniversary of what today is still the highest loss event in the history of the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros and extraordinary risk insurance, namely, the 1983 floods in the Basque Country.

One of the most exciting topics of recent times is that of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its applications and repercussions. In this 20th issue of Consorseguros Digital we focus on AI, emphasizing their uses and implications for the insurance industry.

We have already been working on prevention for several years but perhaps, given that in the last few months of 2019 and those coming into this year we have had to cope with a great many losses from natural events, such as the major low-pressure areas that have caused huge floods, the need for prevention has been put into even sharper perspective.

In the risk assessments to be used as the basis for the establishment of Risk Reduction policies, it is essential to have our data sources well controlled and to be aware of their limitations and the possibilities of manipulation.

From 25 to 28 September 2018, the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS) staged the 12^th meeting of the World Forum of Catastrophe Programmes (WFCP) in Madrid. The WFCP is a group of insurance systems that present interests in common (without having legal status or being legally registered) and which connects various insurance programmes for natural catastrophes that are being run in different countries across the world.

Competency for the enforcement of environmental liability legislation generally falls to the regional governments, without detriment to the areas of competency which are entrusted to the Central Government.

This study presents a tool, a viewer, for plotting the indemnities paid out by the CCS for floods, though excluding coastal flood, by municipality, in the last 15 years, from 2006 to 2020. The information contained in this viewer is taking full advantage of the CCS' wealth of data concerning flood indemnities, and is available to all stakeholders.

CCS publishes statistics on extraordinary risks on an annual basis including detailed information on exposure and the loss rate arising, for both events featuring high amounts claimed and those that are less significant. Against this backdrop, this article examines the comparatively major events which the CCS covered in the past 13 years, from 2009 to 2021.

Both the economy and society as a whole are caught up in a pervasive digital transformation, and in recent years significant advances in using new technologies have been made in the financial sector and within that sector, the insurance subsector. These advances are here to stay.

Cultural heritage is understood to be the assets making up Spain's Historical Heritage that have been accorded a special classification under our country's national legislation. Cultural heritage assets also include real property located anywhere in Spain not owned by the central government that is protected in that category under the legislation of Spain's regional authorities, the Autonomous Communities.

The term "DANA" (the Spanish acronym for a cut-off low) is currently used instead of the phrase "cold drop", which has thus far been the term generally applied, sometimes erroneously. the rising temperatures and water evaporation, according to the laws of physics that apply to meteorology, tend towards ensuring that rainfalls should be more intense or, what amounts to the same thing, an increase in the torrential nature of downpours.

In this article we shall therefore try to gather together and give some structure to the information available in CCS files and documentation from that era in regard to the economic fallout from the event, both to chronicle the episode and leave on record that this data remains accessible.

Initial results of the implementation of Directive 2007/60 on the assessment and management of flood risks.

The Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS) was established in 1954 by merging other funds together, with the aim to take charge of insurance covers for which it retains responsibility up to the present day. Coverage of extraordinary risks is the most important of those insurance covers from the standpoint of the quantitative surcharges collected and the types of losses handled. Initially these risks were also known as catastrophic risks.

The Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros' compilation of Extraordinary Risk Statistics is published yearly and is one of its longest standing and most impactful publications. Its latest issue in 2020 presents statistics on the claims paid by the Consorcio over the past 49 years (time series for 1971-2019).

In this article our intention is to initiate our readers in a language which will become increasingly more visible and necessary in the insurance world, particularly in the scope of motor vehicle claims.

On the middle stretch of the Ebro, the recurrence of the flooding phenomenon and the economic and social impact of water level rises set the river basin authority to work in its quest for innovative action to curb the adverse effect of flooding a long time ago.

In the past twenty-five years there has been a significant rise in flood risk on the Mediterranean coast due to the increase in vulnerability and exposure to the hazard of heavy rains. This reflects the effects of urban expansion from 1990 to the present day, especially in the years of the so-called "property boom" which has made this part of Spain the European region with the highest volume of building activity over the period.

What today is known as a cut-off low is not a common event in northern Spain, but at that time one swept in from the east pulling with it large masses of very cold air aloft that produced extremely heavy rains.

Artificial intelligence's mathematical underpinnings were laid down decades ago, and it is now expanding into every corner of today's society and giving rise to sweeping changes in the business sphere. Some may look at it as just a technology fad, but we would seem to be in the midst of something that runs much deeper, comparable to the impact made by the Internet and widespread use of email in their day.

At the end of the last century?s 80s a small group of senior executives working for various insurers, including the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros, decided to create a shared research centre with the intention of finding out more about motor vehicles.

New technologies are entering our daily lives every year. The use of these technologies has crystallised as a form of change that has turned society on its head in just a short span of time and will continue to do so.

Although natural hazards do not necessarily have to become natural disasters, the economic losses caused by natural disasters are increasing worldwide no matter whether these are caused by geophysical, meteorological, hydrological or climatological hazards.

Colombia's terrain is extremely varied, ranging from low valleys to high snow-capped peaks. This is due primarily to the fact that the country is located right in the middle of the Pacific Ring of Fire, known to be one of the subduction zones that harbours some of the world's most important zones of seismic and volcanic activity as a result of the interaction between the Nazca and the South American tectonic plates.

Having publicised its Guides to adapting to flood risk, the Directorate General for Water at the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge is working on a set of pilot cases for adapting to flood risk. These seek to put the concepts in the guides into practice, pick out the general lines of action to apply to buildings according to their purpose, location and constructional attributes, and draw together good practices.

Over the past two years, we have carried out an international study of Protection Gap Entities (PGEs) - those organizations and initiatives that operate between governments and markets to develop novel financial solutions that mobilize (re)insurance capital in addressing the aftermath of natural and man-made disasters.

The definition of risk management keeps on growing and now we find ourselves faced with situations that seek to protect not only the profit and loss accounts of companies, but also other capital elements such as assets, which are the core of activities; employees, which are the key engine of the business...

This statistical study discusses the historical trend for the economic results obtained by the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS) in its role as a Guarantee Fund for the Compulsory Motor car Third-Party Liability Insurance (MTPL) over the past 20 years (time series for 2001-2020).

Storm Klaus resulted in more than 265,000 claims handled and more than 564.1 million euros in indemnities paid out by Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS). It is by far the most severe episode of extreme winds CCS has had to face and at the time posed a major challenge to the insurance industry as a whole.

The National Observatory for Natural Hazards (ONRN) is an example of a public private partnership that brings together the state, insurers and the Caisse Centrale de Réassurance, which is founded on concerted governance that embraces territorial groups and partners on voluntary projects to pool data, experience and studies.

Spain's third-party automobile insurance legislation has been gradually generating a set of mechanisms which are aimed at guaranteeing an adequate level of protection of the rights of traffic accident victims.                  

Given that the key theme chosen for edition 17 of the magazine Consorseguros Digital is "insuring cultural properties," on 24 October 2022 we ran an interview at the Ministry of Culture and Sport (Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte, MCD), which was arranged as an informal chat, whose aim was to gain a deeper insight into how the State Guarantee functions for works of cultural interest.

Two years after the Decision took effect, we have analysed the impact of applying the Decision, to see whether the estimated 13.3 % decrease in the surcharges on the same sums insured has actually materialised.

AI is transforming every aspect of the insurance industry value chain from product personalisation to claims handling and customer service. As the technology advances, it is expected that it will be integrated further and deeper within the insurance sector, resulting in heightened efficiency and enhanced results for insurance companies and their customers .

On 11 May 2011 two earthquakes took place with their epicentre close to the city of Lorca (Murcia); the first at 17:05, with a magnitude of 4.5 Mw, and the second at 18:47, with a magnitude of 5.1 Mw. These earthquakes caused the death of nine persons and left 300 injured, some seriously, as well as widespread damage to the city?s buildings, which was acute in some of them.

The coast is the first line of defence against the effects of climate change on the oceans and is, perhaps for that very reason, all the more vulnerable to its pernicious effects. It thus transpires that on the coast we encounter an interesting store of proof of how society can implement adaptation measures satisfactorily.

Using this system, insurance companies supply detailed information on such transaction particulars of their policies as coverage inception and expiry dates, geographic location, sums insured and limits, surcharges, and instalment interest.

Due to the inherent nature of their activities, oil companies are exposed to a whole raft of risks of the environmental kind that have to be managed effectively and properly. To do this, a preliminary effort must be made to identify these risks, which is what will enable preventive measures to be designed and implemented to avoid them from happening.

Flooding is a major issue in the UK, with around one in six properties at risk of flooding from coastal, river and surface water.

The different forms of computational science, whether descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, prescriptive, or preventive, are helpful in creating predictive models based on regression techniques.

The artworks sector has been in the throes of a boom in recent years, driven by growing numbers of new collectors. Interest by governments in mounting temporary and permanent exhibitions as tourist attraction magnets has a clear economic impact that kindles the interest of multiple economic operators. The insurance industry has concomitantly been tailoring its products to the increasingly sophisticated needs of the owners of works of art and collections.

Exceptional buildings are key features in every city, a small number of heritage buildings that live alongside modern architecture, adding personality to the urban landscape. Their value as emblems of the history of civilisation is incalculable. Most of us will agree that they are entitled to special consideration in terms of both conservation and insurance.