RMS Releases Updated Views of Risk for Terrorism, Europe Windstorm Clustering and Releases New Marine Cargo & Specie Model and U.S. Flood Hazard Data

NEWARK, Calif. - June 22, 2016 RMS, a leading global catastrophe risk management firm, today announced it has released version 16.0 of its catastrophe modeling platform, which includes updates to both the RMS® Europe Windstorm Clustering Model and the company’s terrorism modeling suite: the RMS® Probabilistic Terrorism Model, RMS® Terrorism Scenario Model, the terrorism target database, and the Industry Loss Curves. The new RMS® Marine Cargo & Specie Model and new RMS® U.S. Flood Hazard Data are also included in the version 16.0 release.

Brian Owens, senior director, model product management, said:  “RMS is bringing a rich pipeline of modeling capability to market this year. Earlier in the year we released our first cyber risk products. Now with version 16.0 we have released more new catastrophe modeling capabilities that address long-standing needs for managing marine risk and U.S. flood risk, as well as tackling the uncertainty around Europe windstorm clustering.”

New Flood Hazard Data for the U.S.

RMS has released high-resolution flood hazard data for the contiguous U.S., covering all sources of coastal and inland flooding. The RMS U.S. Flood Hazard Data provides defended and undefended views of flood extent and depth for three return periods (100, 250, 500-year) at 30-meter resolution, allowing (re)insurers to gain the insights they need to develop, manage, and grow a profitable flood portfolio. The data also reflects the hazard component of the upcoming RMS® U.S. Flood Model, which is targeted for release in 2018.

The Industry’s First Marine Model

The RMS Marine Cargo & Specie Model helps to strengthen marine risk insurers’ decision-making for risk selection, underwriting, and accumulation management associated with onshore cargo risk. The model includes over 2,000 vulnerability functions to capture the damageability of different cargo and storage types for wind, storm surge, and earthquake perils across nearly 80 countries and territories. Accompanying the model are industry exposure databases and mapping files for 150 global ports, supporting more granular quantification and visualization of marine exposure in key accumulation areas.

Chris Folkman, senior director, model product management, said:  “Marine cargo is a crucial part of the global economy, but it has always been treated as an afterthought by the catastrophe models, which until now have used a series of rough approximations to estimate its loss potential. After a series of large marine cat losses over the past five years, it’s clear the cargo and specie lines need a purpose-built model that captures the diversity of its exposure, the packaging and protection measures taken to protect cargo, and the unique coverages found in cargo contracts.“

Europe Windstorm Model

The updated RMS Europe Windstorm Clustering Model includes new historical data, new insights into clustering variability, and new data analysis methods. This new view of clustering risk provides a more certain view of clustering impacts on losses, informing more effective capacity management throughout the region and support for Solvency II model validation requirements.

Updated Terrorism Model

New understanding and data-driven updates to select targets, conditional attack probabilities, and the overall event set across seven countries have been incorporated into all RMS terrorism modeling solutions. RMS has also added the Paris area in France as a newly modeled region. These enhancements reflect the most up-to-date view of the global terrorism risk landscape, supporting more accurate risk selection, monitoring, and pricing of terrorism risk worldwide.

Updated Software

The new and updated models and data products have been released on RMS RiskBrowser® 16.0 and RiskLink®16.0, both of which include software updates to facilitate integration of expanded modeling capabilities, and improvements to geocoding services for a more accurate understanding of exposure risk for numerous modeled and non-modeled countries.