> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.therisk.global/organization/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.therisk.global/organization/finance-readiness.md). # FINANCE READINESS How the Nexus programme makes risk evidence readable to finance, insurance and development institutions, and why it never lends, underwrites, rates, invests, advises on or arranges a transaction. **Where this fits.** Finance readiness · all six sectors · Foundry pillar (National Portfolio), Universe (finance-readiness track), Reports (finance and insurance chapter) · GRA, with GCRI evidence and GRF deliberation · every quarter; Action Week (G4) · canonical page. {% hint style="info" %} **Status.** Finance readiness is designed. GRA has designed eight services, and no fee is published. No national programme is recorded as constituted or active, and "no country report has been released with a GRA contribution yet" ([National portfolio interface](https://globalriskalliance.com/engagement/national-portfolios/)). {% endhint %} ## In brief "Much of the loss from a severe event is uninsured; it lands on households and public budgets." Finance readiness "prepares the evidence so a competent bank, insurer, investor, development lender or finance ministry can review it on its own terms, before the loss" ([Finance and insurance readiness](https://globalriskalliance.com/finance-readiness/)). [The Global Risks Alliance](/organization/institutions/gra.md) (GRA) answers for this one function within Nexus Consortiums. Its question never changes: "what evidence does a competent financial institution need to evaluate resilience needs and possible interventions?" ([Consortium finance interface](https://globalriskalliance.com/engagement/consortium/)). **The boundary, as GRA states it:** "GRA does not lend, underwrite, rate, invest, advise on or arrange transactions. Readiness is not approval." For the programme as a whole: "No promise of funding, underwriting, a bankability rating, capital or a transaction. Readiness evidence is not a financing decision." ## Why readiness matters The case for investing before the loss is well established in the international evidence. Three findings are cited here precisely, as their sources state them: * **Infrastructure disruption.** Disruption to infrastructure costs households and firms in low- and middle-income countries at least $390 billion a year. The net benefit of more resilient infrastructure in those countries is about $4.2 trillion over the life of new assets, roughly $4 of benefit for each $1 invested (Hallegatte, Rentschler and Rozenberg, 2019). * **Adaptation.** Investing $1.8 trillion in five areas from 2020 to 2030 could yield $7.1 trillion in net benefits. "Just 24 hours warning of a coming storm or heat wave can cut the ensuing damage by 30 percent" (Global Commission on Adaptation, 2019). * **Disaster costs.** Direct disaster costs have risen from about $70–80 billion a year (1970–2000) to $180–200 billion a year (2001–2020). Counting cascading and ecosystem effects, total costs exceed $2.3 trillion a year. UNDRR argues for building risk reduction into financing decisions to break the cycle of shocks, losses and debt (UNDRR, 2025). These are published benchmarks for the countries and periods they describe. They are not forecasts for any project or place. What is missing in most countries is not the argument for resilience but the evidence a credit committee, an underwriter or a debt manager can use. Asset registers, insured values, damage functions, counterparty maps and restoration constraints are usually absent. Finance readiness is the work of naming those gaps and closing what can be closed. ## From risk evidence to diligence questions A flood model or a grid dependency map does not answer a financial institution's question by itself. Finance readiness restates each finding as the question a competent institution would ask, and records what it would take to answer it ([Finance and insurance readiness](https://globalriskalliance.com/finance-readiness/)): | Risk evidence | The question a financial institution asks | Asked by | Usually missing | | ------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- | | Modelled flood depth for a river basin | Which insured and uninsured assets sit in the footprint, and what share of the loss falls on households and the public budget? | Insurers, reinsurers and finance ministries | Asset registers, insured values, local damage functions | | Dependency of water treatment on one power substation | Could a single outage interrupt several borrowers or insured operations at once? | Banks, insurers and infrastructure lenders | Counterparty mapping, outage duration, restoration constraints | | Heat and drought scenarios for a farming region | How would yields, input costs and household income move loan performance and food-import costs? | Agricultural lenders, development lenders and central banks | Loan-level geography, price pass-through, coping capacity | | Concentration of payments on one provider of digital services | What fails together, for how long, and who carries the cost? | Supervisors, and banks and insurers writing cyber cover | Third-party inventories, recovery objectives, accumulation data | The left-hand side is evidence from GCRI and from national source owners, with methods and uncertainty. GRA's work is the right-hand side: the question and the gap. The couplings behind these chains are the sector relations of [The Model](/organization/model.md). ## Eight services, one boundary | Service | For | What you receive | Never | | ----------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | From risk evidence to diligence questions | Financial institutions and authorities | A diligence-question register with each question's evidence state | A recommendation to lend, insure or invest | | Insurance readiness and protection gaps | Insurers, reinsurers and public authorities | An exposure and protection-gap note separating measured, estimated and unknown losses | Underwriting, placement, broking or a price for cover | | Disaster risk finance | Finance ministries and public authorities | A risk-layering and fiscal-exposure analysis with its assumptions | A financing commitment, advice on issuing securities or on choosing an instrument or provider, or a promise of disbursement | | Development finance preparation | Development finance institutions and programme owners | A preparation note and a description of the kinds of institution whose review the programme may need | A loan, a grant decision, a pipeline listing or an introduction to a lender | | Scenarios and stress testing | Banks, supervisors and long-horizon investors | Scenario framing against sector-level exposures or public finances, with bounded assumptions | A supervisory test, a capital requirement, investment advice or a forecast of loss | | Readiness dossiers | Any programme approaching a financial review | A versioned readiness dossier | An approval, a rating, a certificate or an offer | | Safeguards and due diligence | Programme owners and receiving institutions | A safeguards register with owners for each open item | A legal opinion, a compliance sign-off or an audit | | Documented release for review | Programme owners and competent institutions | A release record | An introduction, a recommended counterparty, a placement, a fee tied to any transaction or an expectation of approval | Source: [Finance and insurance readiness](https://globalriskalliance.com/finance-readiness/). Each service serves a programme or a shared industry question. GRA does not do an institution's own credit, underwriting, investment or risk-management work. In the programme's catalogue these services form offering **O07, Finance, Insurance and Development Readiness** ([Status and service levels](/organization/governance-in-operation/status-and-service-levels.md)). ## The readiness ladder
A readiness dossier climbs five rungs, each a record and not a grade: evidence assembled, with one of nine evidence labels on every source; scenarios compared, as a range and never a single number; safeguards checked, each open question with an owner; diligence questions registered, so that what remains unknown is listed for the receiving institution; and release for independent review, only on the programme owner's written direction, to a competent party the owner names, with a release record. The receiving institution then decides under its own authority, on its own criteria. A rung not reached is shown as not reached, with the reason written down.

From evidence to an institution's own decision. The last step is never the programme's: readiness is fitness for a stated next step, not approval, bankability or certification. A design, not a record of any dossier. Source: globalriskalliance.com/finance-readiness/ and /finance-readiness/handoff/. As of 2026-10-21.

Figure data (text alternative) | Element | Description | Connected to | | ------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | | Evidence assembled | One evidence label on every source | Scenarios compared | | Scenarios compared | A range across scenarios, never one number | Evidence assembled; Safeguards checked | | Safeguards checked | Each open question has an owner | Scenarios compared; Diligence questions registered | | Diligence questions registered | What remains unknown, listed openly | Safeguards checked; Release for review | | Release for review | On the owner's written direction; release record kept | Diligence questions registered; The institution decides | | The institution decides | Under its own authority; never the programme | Release for review |
"A dossier climbs only as far as its evidence allows. A rung not reached is shown as not reached, with the reason written down." A readiness effort may conclude that the evidence is insufficient. That finding is recorded and returned to the owner, never presented as readiness. ## Evidence flows in one direction GCRI's hazard and systems findings are restated by GRA for financial readers. Questions about who should carry residual risk go to GRF for deliberation. "No institution takes another's decisions" ([Consortium finance interface](https://globalriskalliance.com/engagement/consortium/)). Across the [programme year](/organization/programme/the-programme-year.md), the interface meets three cycles: | Cycle | What happens | | ----------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Risk | Hazard, dependency and exposure evidence is read for credit, insurance, market and fiscal channels | | Development | Resilience programmes are prepared with the evidence, safeguards and data a lender's diligence needs | | Universe | A finance and insurance readiness track is planned for Action Week, governed by GRF; simulated loss is never observed impact ([Universe finance-readiness programme](https://globalriskalliance.com/engagement/nexus-universe/)) | ## How this part relates to the international frameworks Finance readiness prepares evidence of the kind that existing frameworks already ask for. It does not replace them, and it takes no role in them: * **Disaster risk finance:** layering financial protection by frequency and severity, as the World Bank and GFDRR financial protection approach describes. See [Risk layering](/organization/finance-readiness/risk-layering.md). * **Supervision and stress testing:** the Basel Committee's principles for climate-related financial risks (BCBS, 2022), the FSB roadmap (FSB, 2021) and the NGFS scenarios for central banks and supervisors (NGFS, 2024). Supervisors may use published scenario evidence as any other source; no participant gains privileged access. * **Disclosure:** physical and transition risk under IFRS S2 (ISSB, 2023), and nature-related risk under the TNFD recommendations (TNFD, 2023). * **Public finance:** the IMF's integration of climate into surveillance and capacity development (IMF, 2021) and its Resilience and Sustainability Trust (IMF, 2022). * **Blended and development finance:** the OECD DAC Blended Finance Principles (OECD, 2018), the G20 independent review of MDB capital adequacy frameworks (G20 Expert Panel, 2022) and the World Bank Group guarantee platform (World Bank Group, 2024). These describe what lenders and guarantors do. The programme does none of it. ## Pages in this part | Page | What it covers | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Risk layering](/organization/finance-readiness/risk-layering.md) | Who carries which loss by severity, and the evidence each layer needs | | [National portfolios](/organization/finance-readiness/national-portfolios.md) | How a National Portfolio is read for finance, and who owns it | | [Lawful handoffs](/organization/finance-readiness/lawful-handoffs.md) | The one-to-one release of a dossier, and the vehicles the programme never forms | ## Sources * Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (2022). *Principles for the effective management and supervision of climate-related financial risks*. [bis.org](https://www.bis.org/bcbs/publ/d532.htm) * Financial Stability Board (2021). *FSB Roadmap for Addressing Climate-Related Financial Risks*. [fsb.org](https://www.fsb.org/2021/07/fsb-roadmap-for-addressing-climate-related-financial-risks/) * G20 Expert Panel (2022). *Boosting MDBs' Investing Capacity: An Independent Review of Multilateral Development Banks' Capital Adequacy Frameworks*. [Review](https://mdbreformaccelerator.cgdev.org/an-independent-review-of-multilateral-development-banks-capital-adequacy-frameworks/) * Global Commission on Adaptation (2019). *Adapt Now: A Global Call for Leadership on Climate Resilience*. [gca.org](https://gca.org/reports/adapt-now-a-global-call-for-leadership-on-climate-resilience/) * Hallegatte, S., Rentschler, J. and Rozenberg, J. (2019). *Lifelines: The Resilient Infrastructure Opportunity*. Washington, DC: World Bank. [openknowledge.worldbank.org](https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/31805) * IFRS Foundation, International Sustainability Standards Board (2023). *IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures*. [ifrs.org](https://www.ifrs.org/issued-standards/ifrs-sustainability-standards-navigator/ifrs-s2-climate-related-disclosures/) * International Monetary Fund (2021). *IMF Strategy to Help Members Address Climate Change Related Policy Challenges*. Policy Paper No. 2021/057. [imf.org](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Policy-Papers/Issues/2021/07/30/IMF-Strategy-to-Help-Members-Address-Climate-Change-Related-Policy-Challenges-Priorities-463093) * International Monetary Fund (2022). Operationalization of the Resilience and Sustainability Trust. Press Release No. 22/348. [imf.org](https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2022/10/12/pr22348-md-announces-operationalization-of-rst) * Network for Greening the Financial System (2024). *NGFS Climate Scenarios for Central Banks and Supervisors, Phase V*. [ngfs.net](https://www.ngfs.net/system/files/import/ngfs/medias/documents/ngfs_scenarios_phase_v.pdf) * OECD (2018). *OECD DAC Blended Finance Principles for Unlocking Commercial Finance for the Sustainable Development Goals*. [oecd.org](https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/2018/12/oecd-dac-blended-finance-principles_898d3549.html) * Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (2023). *Recommendations of the TNFD*. [tnfd.global](https://tnfd.global/recommendations-of-the-tnfd/) * UNDRR (2025). *Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2025: Resilience Pays*. [undrr.org](https://www.undrr.org/gar/gar2025) * World Bank Group (2024). World Bank Group Guarantee Platform Goes Live. Press release, 1 July 2024. [worldbank.org](https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2024/07/01/world-bank-group-guarantee-platform-goes-live) * GRA: [Finance and insurance readiness](https://globalriskalliance.com/finance-readiness/); [Consortium finance interface](https://globalriskalliance.com/engagement/consortium/); [National portfolio interface](https://globalriskalliance.com/engagement/national-portfolios/); [Universe finance-readiness programme](https://globalriskalliance.com/engagement/nexus-universe/). * [Sources library](/organization/reference/sources.md). --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation by asking a question. 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