RMS Updates Views Of Risk For Asia Pacific Earthquake & North Atlantic Hurricane

NEWARK, CA – April 29, 2019 – RMS^®, the leading global risk modeling and data analytics firm, announced today the release of new views of earthquake risk in Taiwan and in six countries across Southeast Asia, as well as an update to its view of hurricane risk across the hurricane-impacted countries in the North Atlantic basin. The models will be delivered on version 18.1 of RiskLink and RiskBrowser, RMS’ industry-leading risk management software.

The model updates incorporate RMS’ latest methodologies and reflect the latest in RMS research on hazard, vulnerability and financial modeling enhancements.

The Latest View on Atlantic Hurricane Activity

The North Atlantic Hurricane models include updates to long-term and medium-term hurricane event rates, new historical event reconstructions from recent seasons, and vulnerability enhancements informed by new data and RMS building research. The release enables RMS to continue to comply with the hurricane standards of the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology, while providing the (re)insurance market with an expansive suite of modeling tools that reflect the most up-to-date view of the Atlantic hurricane risk landscape.

A Model Designed for Today’s Taiwan Earthquake Risk Market

The insurance market in Taiwan has changed significantly since RMS first released its earthquake model in 2001 following the 1999 M7.6 Chi-Chi Earthquake. With this release, the RMS Taiwan Earthquake Model reflects the latest science on earthquakes and on building performance to best support risk management practices for this region of high seismic risk.

South East Asia Earthquake Models Reflect New Market and Scientific Insights

The countries of Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam in Southeast Asia are among the fastest growing economies in the world, with rapid development of the building stock and expansion of the exposure in the region. The version 18.1 Southeast Asia Earthquake models build on the enhancements made in version 17 in 2017, incorporating new and expanded market data, market feedback, and improved data sets. This comprehensive, new view of risk serves a wide variety of use cases ranging from location-level pricing and primary underwriting applications, through pricing of per risk facultative reinsurance, and management of exposure aggregations, to understanding portfolio-level tail risk across multiple countries.

Enhanced High-resolution Capabilities in the U.S.

In keeping with RMS’ commitment to ensure the highest quality and accuracy geocoding for its models, geocoding will be updated for all U.S. models in version 18.1. In addition, the amount of high-resolution building data has doubled for the U.S., providing users with the confidence that when they model a risk in version 18.1 they are getting the best view of the hazard at those locations.

Managing Director for Asia Pacific and Japan appointed

As a further sign of RMS’s commitment to the region, Andy Woodhouse has been appointed as Managing Director for Asia and Japan. Andy joins RMS from Temenos, the banking software firm, where he was Regional Services Director. Prior to that he was Head of Product and Business Development at Bloomberg, and Managing Director at Real Time Systems, a global financial technology firm. Other experience has included Managing Director at SunGard Global Services, Banking Industry Director at Oracle and Director of Financial Management Solutions at Peoplesoft. Andy will be based in Hong Kong, where he lives.

Neil Isford, Executive Vice President, RMS, said: “Asia Pacific is a critical growth area for RMS and our clients. This is reflected in our commitment to not only delivering and updating an increasing suite of models for the region, but also in the caliber of the staff we have working with clients. Andy has over 20 years of experience in successfully building teams across this region to sell and implement software-based solutions, and I know that his experience and enthusiasm will be of great benefit to all our Asia Pacific clients.”

Mohsen Rahnama, Chief Risk Modeling Officer, RMS said: “We have continued to build and develop our model offering in this important region over the past years as can be seen in the new models and model updates. Version 18.1 is a further proof point that the RMS model suite stays abreast of the latest science, methodologies and technology in risk analysis. RMS is committed to delivering the best quality models and science to the market and V18.1 delivers on this.”