State backing of flood insurance enhances the willingness of insurers to enter the market. Focus on social benefits and the
protection of the vulnerable is another positive feature of state backed schemes that market provision would struggle to
emulate. The crucial test is whether such pools can continue to be backed by state resources if claims rise significantly with
changing climates. Where the national economy can bear the PML – whether via a national pool, the tax base or borrowing
after an event – this can be a lower cost option than market based reserves. However it will be increasingly the case that
reserves to cover the PML could be beyond the national capacity and therefore recourse to international markets via catastrophe
finance will be required. Catastrophe finance can provide a backstop to individual insurers or governments via catastrophe
bonds (Bonds that will fail to pay back to investors if an event of an agreed magnitude occurs. This allows the issuer to use the invested money to pay claims or repair damage) or reinsurance (a policy that pays out proportional to the losses if an
event if agreed magnitude occurs).