Tower took its parametric insurance experience in Fiji to Pre-COP31, where the pilot's first payout, FJ$27,050 across 278 Kadavu customers, works out at about FJ$97 each on average and was paid within three weeks of the rain, against a seven-day target for the wider rollout.
Ron Mudaliar, Tower's chief underwriting officer, joined a panel at the meeting alongside Fiji's deputy prime minister, Manoa Kamikamica. Pre-COP31, hosted by Fiji, Tuvalu and Australia from 5 to 8 October, precedes the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Türkiye, in November. Tower said its contribution focused on moving from pilots to sustainable systems.
Rainfall Response Cover pays automatically when rainfall at an insured location passes an agreed threshold, with no claim or damage assessment, and the amount paid depends on the cover purchased. The first payout followed heavy rain in Kadavu in late June and was made within three weeks, while Tower has said it is aiming for payments within seven days. Dividing the total by the number of customers gives about FJ$97 each, although individual payments will vary with the level of cover. Tower's release does not say how many customers hold the product in total.
The product launched in November 2025 as a pilot for the 2025-26 wet season with support from the UN Capital Development Fund, the Reserve Bank of Fiji and the InsuResilience Solutions Fund, reported at launch that it included premium subsidies during the pilot phase. That backdrop shapes Tower's message. Felichya Khan, its product manager for parametric insurance, said: "The Pacific does not need more pilots that end when the funding does." Tower is calling for clear rules, local ownership, public-private partnerships and long-term funding.
The wider context is low insurance penetration. Reserve Bank of Fiji governor Ariff Ali said only about 14% of Fijians hold some form of insurance when a parametric product for micro, small and medium enterprises, developed by Tower with the central bank, UNCDF, UNDP and the Asian Development Bank, was launched in Fiji, Islands Business reported.
Closer to home, parametric cover remains a small niche in New Zealand, where Descartes has offered it since 2019. The conversation is happening alongside the Reserve Bank adding insurance affordability to its financial stability risk register and AA Insurance halting new policies in one Westport postcode over flood exposure.
The Fiji pilot is a small, real-world data point on the questions any parametric buyer would ask: how the trigger is set and how closely it tracks the customer's own loss, how fast it pays, and who funds the premium. On the figures published so far, the product pays without assessment, but in modest amounts per customer, slower than Tower's own target, and with premium support during the pilot.
