Person:
Pollner, John Daniel
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
bank insolvency and resolution tools; catastrophe insurance and financial instruments; private/funded pension systems; structured finance and securitization (capital markets); Latin America; Eastern Europe; Central/East Asia
Degrees
Departments
Private and Financial Sector Development Department, Europe and Central Asia Region
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
John Pollner is Lead Financial Officer (Financial & Risk Markets) in the Private and Financial Sector Department of the Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank. He specializes in policy analysis and projects in the new EU member states involving banking insolvency/bankruptcy, resolution and restructuring, capital market development and securitization, private sector pension reforms & annuities markets, and catastrophe insurance programs for hedging fiscal losses from natural peril risks, the latter area where he pioneered the design and use of risk transfer mechanisms. Mr. Pollner is a national of both the US and Chile, and has an MBA / Finance degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
Publication Search Results
1 - 4 of 4
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Publication
Managing Catastrophic Disaster Risks Using Alternative Risk financing and Pooled Insurance Structures
( 2001-05)This report examines the constraints and opportunities in implementing a catastrophe insurance system which can resolve the key obstacles impeding broader implementation of a risk funding approach. The four main pillars in such a strategy involve: 1) strengthening insurance sector regulatory requirements and supervision; 2) establishing broad-based pooled catastrophe funding structures with efficient risk transfer tools; 3) promoting public insurance policies linked to programs for loss reduction in the uninsured sectors; and 4) strengthening the risk assessment and enforcement of structural measures such as zoning and building code compliance. The report is structured as follows: chapter 1 examines the characteristics of the global insurance and reinsurance market and its links with Caribbean insurers and policyholders Chapter 2 examines the domestic Caribbean insurance market structure and institutions, and their commercial practices Chapter 3 discusses how structural mitigation and vulnerability reduction measures can prove to be cost-effective investments that can dramatically reduce exposure risks on properties. Chapter 4 analyzes the modalities of risk transfer for potential financial losses. Chapter 5 demonstrates innovations being developed for catastrophe risk management. Chapter 6 examines risk management options. Chapter 7 concludes by demonstrating the financial feasibility and sustainability of operating and managing catastrophe risks under a sub-regional pool. -
Publication
Catastrophe Risk Management : Using Alternative Risk Financing and Insurance Pooling Mechanisms
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2001-02)Residual stochastic risks from catastrophic natural events can be addressed through insurance pooling and risk transfer mechanisms that provide the basis for financial protection and instill strong incentives for reducing vulnerability. To reduce the economic stress after disasters, the author shows, World Bank instruments could be used to support initiaitves to help correct market imperfections in catastrophe insurance. He takes a step-by-step approach to showing how both risk pooling structures and alternative catastrophe coverage mechanisms (long-maturity risk financing facilities, weather-indexed contracts, and capital market instruments) can achieve better risk protection and financing terms--enough to allow the expansion of insurance coverage of public assets and private property. The author examines the insurable assets (private and public) in eight countries in the easternmost part of the Caribbean and, by quantifying the portion of the premium and risk used to fund catastrophe losses, shows that through pooling and the use of credit-type instruments for catastrophe coverage, governments and uninsured property owners or enterprises (with insurable assets) could expect to improve their terms of coverage. Neither local insurers nor reinsurers would suffer in profitability. The risk management options the author examines could lead to real benefits for all participants (buyers and sellers) in insurance markets. But four factors are essential for ensuring the integrity of any participatory insurance scheme for providing risk management in disaster-prone areas such as the Caribbean: 1) stronger regulatory requirements and supervision in the insurance sector; 2) Broad-based, pooled catastrophe funding structures with efficient risk transfer tools; 3) Public insurance policies linked to programs for loss reduction in uninsured sectors; and 4) Stronger risk assessment and enforcement of such structural measures as zoning and compliance with building codes. -
Publication
Structured Finance in Latin America : Channeling Pension Funds to Housing, Infrastructure, and Small Businesses
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)The report covers several types of structured finance with such capital market instruments as mortgage-backed securities, structured bond issues for infrastructure financing, securitization of small and medium enterprises (SME)-related assets, and securitization of loans to SMEs. The report also covers factoring and leasing, which can be important sources of finance for SMEs and can be pooled and packaged into marketable securities and sold to pension funds. The report does not cover other types of structured finance, such as exchange trade funds, structured notes with capital protection, or structured financing outside capital markets, such as bank syndications. Chapter 1 focuses on private pension fund investment management and the role of structured bonds. Chapter 2 focuses on the increasing use of structured finance for housing in Latin American countries. Chapter 3 deals with the less developed yet promising area of structured bonds for infrastructure financing. Chapter 4 focuses on the use of structured bonds for SME finance, still in the experimental stage. The report discusses the role of the government in supporting small and medium loan securitizations through partial guarantees (as in Spain) to share the risk of borrower default and through the development of an SME securitization conduit (as in Germany). -
Publication
Climate Change Adaptation in Europe and Central Asia: Disaster Risk Management
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-06-22)The following paper serves as a sectoral background note for the regional report ‘managing Uncertainty: Adapting to Climate Change in Europe and Central Asia Countries’. It focuses on what is known about the implications of climate change for extreme weather and the ability of Europe and Central Asia (ECA) to mitigate and manage the impact of extreme events. It also explains how climate change will increase weather-induced disasters in ECA, highlighting the sensitivity of ECA’s population to these hazards, and recommending various measures in the area of financial and fiscal policy, disaster risk mitigation, and emergency preparedness and management, to reduce current and future vulnerabilities. The goals of this paper are to: (i) present forecasts on how climate change will affect weather-related hazards and secondary effects, and what impact the extreme hydro-meteorological phenomena will have on the countries of Europe and Central Asia; and (ii) provide an overview of measures to mitigate and manage these risks.