mumbai general insurance corporation of india gic re is planning to set up a pool to reinsure risks arising out of natural calamities in asia and africa the stateowned reinsurer was given the mandate of creating managing the natural catastrophes natcat pool by the federation of afroasian insurers and reinsurers which has around 200 members from asia africa a conference held in kuala lumpur a pool in insurance terminology is a virtual fund created out of commitments from various underwriters this pool reimburses to insurance companies very large claims arising out of specified events pools already exist in india to cover terrorism risks and motor third party risks a natcat pool protects the balance sheets of insurance companies if they face large claims out of natural disasters such as cyclones and hurricanes the idea is to diversify the risks by leveraging disparate geographies member insurers from this region will come together to form the pool which can be used to disburse claims in the event of a major natural disaster in any part of the region said r raghavan gm of gic re at the sidelines of the launch of mumbai educational trusts embainsurance programmethe initial concept is in place we may be able to start offering capacities from january 2011 the pool will ensure that insurers in a single country will not take a major hit as the risks will be spread across member companies from various countries in the region he refused to comment on the expected size of the pool gics role will also include providing technical expertise for scientific modelling that the project would entail he said all the member companies who were present at the meeting were aware of the proposal and gic re would start approaching them individually to bring in the monetary capacity access to the pool will be restricted to the member companies but nonmembers could participate as reinsurers later he added almost all psu insurers in india are members of this federation on gic res expansion plans mr raghavan said the company was planning to open a branch in malaysia before the end of this financial year while the next fiscal will see another coming up in johannesburg south africa