Tower has made its first payout under its Rainfall Response Cover in Fiji, sending FJ$27,050 to 278 customers in Kadavu within three weeks of heavy rainfall in late June 2026.
The Fiji Meteorological Service issued a heavy rain warning for the entire Fiji group in mid-June, with a coastal inundation alert covering Kadavu and nearby islands as an active trough of low pressure brought widespread rain, strong winds and the threat of flash flooding. The payout followed when rainfall at insured locations in Kadavu crossed the agreed threshold specified in each policy - a predetermined rainfall total measured at a specific gauge location over a defined period. Once that threshold is crossed, payment is made automatically without requiring an assessor to visit the property or confirm damage.
Tower chief underwriting officer Ron Mudaliar (pictured) said the Kadavu payout reflected the model's intended purpose. "Following heavy rainfall, nearly 300 Fijian families received a helping hand through our parametric rainfall product, enabling faster access to financial support when it was needed most," he said.
Rainfall Response Cover launched as a 12-month pilot in November 2025, supported by the United Nations Capital Development Fund through the Pacific Insurance and Climate Adaptation Programme, alongside the Reserve Bank of Fiji and the InsuResilience Solutions Fund. The RBF provides regulatory oversight and contributes to subsidy mechanisms during the pilot phase.
The product sits on an administration platform Tower built with insurtech firm CelsiusPro in 2024, which processes trigger data and automates payouts without manual claims handling. Tower said the Kadavu payout provided learnings that would help it scale the product ahead of a wider Fiji launch later this year, with a target of paying qualifying claims within seven days of an event - roughly half the time the pilot payout took.
Tower's parametric portfolio in the Pacific began with Cyclone Response Cover in 2022, before expanding to Tonga and Samoa in 2023. Rainfall Response Cover adds a second trigger mechanism to that portfolio, covering an event type - sustained heavy rainfall - that generates significant community impact but does not always cause the visible structural damage that traditional indemnity claims require.
Across Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu, 44,813 households are covered by some form of climate-based parametric insurance product, according to United Nations Development Programme 2025 figures. The UNDP has said such products can get funds to affected households within days rather than months - a timeline that is particularly significant in remote Pacific communities where physical access for loss assessors can be difficult or impossible in the immediate aftermath of a weather event.
Tower's parametric programme illustrates what insurable solutions exist for low-value, high-frequency climate events in markets where traditional indemnity products are not economically viable to place. Mudaliar said parametric insurance has a role to play as the region deals with worsening extreme weather. "This payout demonstrates the potential of parametric insurance, and we are excited by the opportunities ahead to help make communities more resilient," he said.
