Bermuda has signed up for an international catastrophe insurance scheme designed to cover the Island and the Caribbean for natural disasters.

The Island is one of 16 members of the Caribbean Catastrophe Insurance Facility (CCRIF), a not-for-profit scheme which offers cover for events like hurricanes, flooding and earthquakes.

The CCRIF this year offered a 50 per cent discount hurricane and earthquake policies and a 15 per cent discount on excess rainfall policies.

Bermuda holds only a hurricane policy, triggered on model losses from wind and storm surge.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has predicted a below-average number of hurricanes this season, which ends on November 30.

But that still means there is a likelihood of six to 11 named storms, three to six hurricanes and up to two major hurricanes for the Atlantic area.

CCRIF was developed by the World Bank and with a grant from the government of Japan.

Capitalisation came from a multi-donor trust fund set up by the Bermuda Government in alliance with the UK, Canadian, Irish and French governments, the World Bank, the European Union and the Caribbean Development Bank, as well as membership fees paid by participating governments.

Since it was set up in 2007, the CCRIF has made a total of 12 payments totalling around $35.6 million to eight member states.

The fund made payouts in the Caribbean in the wake of Hurricane Gonzalo last year, which also hit Bermuda, but the Island’s policy did not reach the required trigger for compensation.