Dr. Nigel Clarke, the Minister of Finance of Jamaica and the motive force of that nation’s multi-layered strategy to catastrophe danger financing that features the primary disaster bond for a small-island state has been proposed to grow to be a Deputy Managing Director of the Worldwide Financial Fund (IMF).
Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the IMF, introduced her proposal to nominate Nigel Clarke to the place as of October thirty first 2024, succeeding Antoinette Sayeh, who steps down on September twelfth.
Georgieva defined, “Mr. Clarke is an distinctive public servant and policymaker, with confirmed management in establishment constructing and financial disaster administration, who has stewarded his nation’s financial system to a stronger and extra sustainable place.
“Since 2016, he has been the IMF’s chief counterpart on successive and traditionally profitable packages for Jamaica, together with an Prolonged Fund Facility, a precautionary Stand-By Association, and most not too long ago a Precautionary Liquidity Line plus Resilience and Sustainability Facility, leaving the nation with sturdy financial fundamentals. Nigel additionally brings a wealth of expertise from a stellar non-public sector profession.”
Clarke has been Jamaica’s Minister of Finance and the Public Service, and a Member of Parliament, since March 2018.
Throughout his time working in Jamaica’s authorities, Clarke has overseen the international locations implementation of a multi-layered catastrophe danger financing program.
As a part of that, Jamaica grew to become the primary small nation to independently sponsor a disaster bond, with World Financial institution help, the IMF highlighted in its announcement of his proposal to the Deputy MD function..
Jamaica first benefited from disaster bond protection in 2021 when it sponsored the IBRD CAR 130 transaction.
This was renewed earlier this yr, with the IBRD CAR Jamaica 2024 disaster bond issued in Could.
Beneath Clarke’s watch, Jamaica has put collectively among the best examples of a multi-layered strategy to catastrophe danger financing and switch, with a spread of devices, a few of which parametric insurance coverage and cat bonds, designed to answer disasters of differing frequency and severity.
The catastrophe danger financing program was not too long ago put to the take a look at when main hurricane Beryl narrowly missed Jamaica, however nonetheless induced important impacts to the nation and its inhabitants.
Whereas the World Financial institution disaster bond didn’t get triggered by the storm, a variety of different devices together with parametric insurance coverage from the CCRIF did, which ensured Jamaica had liquidity and funds out there shortly for rebuilding and restoration.
Clarke went to nice lengths to clarify why the layered approach to disaster risk finance benefits Jamaica and that not every risk transfer instrument had been designed to respond to every storm.
As we reported not too long ago, a line has to be drawn between affordability and coverage when it comes to parametric instruments, resembling Jamaica’s cat bond and different danger switch. That is one thing Clarke navigated along with his workforce in growing the layered strategy to catastrophe danger financing that advantages Jamaica.
Clarke was elected Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Inter-American Improvement Financial institution and the Inter-American Funding Company in 2022. Earlier than coming into public service, he was Vice Chairman and Chief Monetary Officer of the Musson Group, a regional conglomerate, and commenced his profession as an Fairness Derivatives Dealer at Goldman Sachs in London. Clarke holds a PhD in Numerical Evaluation from Oxford College the place he was a Rhodes Scholar, and a Grasp of Science Diploma in Utilized Statistics, additionally from Oxford, whereas he was a Commonwealth Scholar.
The IMF has itself long-called for higher use of disaster bonds and different responsive catastrophe danger financing devices.
The IMF started to develop a deal with disaster bonds as long ago as 2008. In 2017 it put its weight behind requires a Caribbean-wide disaster bond, really useful cat bonds for Bangladesh in 2019 and in 2022 mentioned that cat bonds are one of “the most prominent innovations in the field of sustainable finance in the last 15 years.”
As such, Clarke ought to discover loads of assist for the work he has undertaken in Jamaica throughout his time as Minister of Finance and will effectively discover his experiences referred to as upon because the IMF expands its work within the catastrophe danger financing enviornment.
