RMS Expands Underwriting Capabilities, Global Suite for Catastrophe Peril Models

Risk Management Solutions (RMS) announced the launch of RiskLink and RiskBrowser 4.5, the latest versions of its catastrophe modeling systems.

The upgraded systems include new underwriting capabilities, expanded accumulation management functionality, and the addition of new models for Belgium flood, Hong Kong typhoon, and U.S. workers compensation for earthquake events. The release also includes upgraded versions of the Chile earthquake and Taiwan earthquake models.

RMS’ enterprise underwriting application, RiskBrowser, now includes functionality to validate building values contained in location schedules, via automated access to Marshall & Swift/Boeckh’s building valuation calculation engine. Version 4.5 features intelligent inferences that can use basic location attributes such as construction type and number of stories to obtain accurate building valuation estimates. These features are embedded into the existing workflow to support an efficient and consistent approach to validating building values, significantly improving data quality and the reliability of modeled results.

Accumulation management functionality has been expanded with the addition of U.S. flood zone data to the RiskLink portfolio management system. RMS’ flood zone data covers more than 3,100 counties, representing 97% of the U.S. population. Access to this data in RiskLink allows companies to determine the flood zone for a specific location, as well as track exposure accumulations across multiple perils and lines of business.

The RMS Belgium River Flood Model represents the next step in RMS’ development of a Europe-wide flood model. The model calculates insured loss on and off the major river floodplains and from both winter and summer flood events. It has been constructed using a Variable Resolution Grid (VRG) with a resolution of up to 50 meters in high hazard regions.

The Hong Kong Federation of Insurers (HKFI) gave RMS exclusive access to high-resolution exposure and loss data for validation of the RMS Hong Kong Typhoon model. The model features all of RMS’ latest innovations in tropical cyclone modeling, including a basin-wide stochastic event set and a time- stepping directional windfield model that considers the impact on windspeeds from Hong Kong’s varied surface roughness and significant topography.

Previously only available for aggregate analyses, a high-resolution version of the RMS U.S. Workers’ Comp Earthquake Model has been incorporated into RiskLink and RiskBrowser. This upgrade allows companies to analyze detailed workers’ comp exposure information for U.S. earthquake analyses, calculating the number of casualties and corresponding losses with uncertainty. Additionally, the accumulation management analysis options within RiskLink and RiskBrowser have been expanded to evaluate the impact of workers’ comp exposures.

The upgraded Chile earthquake and Taiwan earthquake models provide the most advanced seismic risk assessment solutions available to meet the growing demands of local insurance companies.

The high-resolution models can be used for the underwriting and pricing of individual risks, as well as capacity allocation and accumulation management in these expanding markets.