Assessment of earthquake insurance rates for the Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool

After the two major earthquakes in 1999, the Government of Turkey has decided to enforce the earthquake insurance on the nationwide basis with the sole purpose of privatising the potential risk by offering insurance via the Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool (TCIP) and then exporting the major part of this risk to the international reinsurance and capital markets. All registered residential dwellings are required to be in the compulsory earthquake insurance coverage. The probabilistic model of earthquake insurance analysis, which was developed earlier, is applied using the appropriate data processing methods and recent data, to obtain realistic estimates of the earthquake insurance rates applicable for reinforced concrete and masonry buildings in Turkey and check the validity of the current tariff rates. While doing this, the information on future earthquake threat is integrated with the information on expected earthquake damage to buildings.