RMS

RMS Releases Enhanced Version of the Miu ILS Portfolio Management Platform

May 16, 2011

RMS has released version 2.6 of its insurance-linked securities (ILS) portfolio management platform, Miu. The new version of the market-leading platform - which enables investors to quickly analyze and manage a portfolio of catastrophe bonds, side cars, industry loss warranties, and reinsurance contracts - includes additional features that provide greater insight into underlying risk exposures and more powerful transaction modeling, while creating considerable time savings.

A new 'ILW Wizard' guides users through the process of creating and analyzing an industry loss warranty, making the structuring of these instruments both intuitive and fast. The easy-to-follow wizard format caters to both newcomers to this space, by allowing input of ILW parameters in a user-friendly manner, as well as experienced investors by simplifying the modeling of complex multi-peril ILWs.

In addition to the full suite of RMS Industry Loss Curves (ILCs) already available in the platform, a selection of non-peak ILC data sets are now available to Miu users, broadening the modeling coverage to include a selection of 12 new peril regions. To help create more streamlined distribution and efficient management of ILS profiles, a new Miu Portal has been added to the platform. As soon as an ILS has been characterized by RMS, it is uploaded to the portal, giving clients immediate access and reducing the need for manual intervention. Users also have instant access to a wealth of reports, documentation, and supplementary data.

Using version 2.6, investors can also now edit fixed-rate currency sets directly in the platform and create custom shock analyses during an analysis. As a result, ILS investors are able to analyze a variety of future currency scenarios, including the effects of the weakening dollar on the cat bond market portfolio, and currency fluctuations seen in the aftermath of major catastrophes.

Benchmark Bonds

In addition to the new enhancements to Miu, RMS has today released the first of its 'benchmark bonds' – a set of simple representative ILS structures, designed to provide insight into the differences between catastrophe models. The benchmark bonds can be run in any of the major catastrophe models, giving a unique insight into how different components of each model behave.

The first set covers U.S. hurricane and U.S. earthquake, with industry loss and standard exposure benchmarks. The standard exposure, designed by Fermat Capital Management, LLC, is derived from public census data, ensuring no proprietary information is required to perform the modeling. Using a standard exposure set, in addition to the industry exposure set, enables a comparison of how vulnerabilities, event rates and exposure sets vary across models.

Visit www.miuportal.com to download the benchmark bonds. For more information about Miu version 2.6, contact miu@rms.com.