For Immediate Release:
Future Release of AIR Worldwide's Touchstone to Include Noncatastrophe Risk Analysis
MONTE CARLO, Monaco & BOSTON, Sept. 9, 2013 - Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide today announced its next generation software platform, Touchstone, will include the ability to account for both catastrophe and noncatastrophe risk in a single platform to provide companies with a more comprehensive view of their risk.
Underwriters often need to address both catastrophe and noncatastrophe perils. Ideally, the valuation of noncatastrophe perils will be based on detailed, location-level exposure data similar to the workflow for detailed catastrophe modeling. Adding noncatastrophe analytics to Touchstone will allow companies to analyze the noncatastrophe risk of property exposures using the same exposure data that has been input for catastrophe modeling. With Touchstone, users can manage both, in one streamlined workflow, making analysis of individual direct and facultative accounts and per risk reinsurance portfolios much easier and more efficient, saving them valuable time.
"AIR can leverage the vast resources of Verisk Analytics [Nasdaq:VRSK], our parent company, as we expand the capabilities and functionality of Touchstone to meet the evolving needs of our clients," said Ming Lee, president & CEO of AIR Worldwide. "That expansion includes incorporating Verisk's unique and valuable information into our modeling platform - such as ISO advisory prospective loss costs, and ISO's Commercial Property Size-of-Loss Database (PSOLD), which includes more than one million severity curves that show expected loss for various policy limits."
ISO's loss costs and PSOLD will be seamlessly integrated into Touchstone, and ISO noncatastrophe information for both insurance and reinsurance pricing analysis will be available and can easily be combined with modeled catastrophe losses for a more comprehensive underwriting solution. The combined workflow is particularly important when assessing submissions of portfolios or other data sets with many locations, as is routinely the case with binder reporting, treaty underwriting, and individual account (direct and facultative ) submissions.
Lee commented, "We envision that in future releases of Touchstone, companies will have the ability to add their own loss cost data for individual locations, both inside and outside of the U.S.; and to enter adjustments to loss costs based on their specific exposures."
Noncatastrophe risk is sometimes referred to as fire risk because fire is the dominant noncatastrophe peril (others include: lightning, explosion, vandalism, sprinkler leakage, fallen trees, and wind, etc.). Within Touchstone, users will be able to perform the following noncatastrophe analyses:
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Calculate noncatastrophe expected losses for each location within an exposure data set
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Distribute noncatastrophe expected losses into excess of loss layers
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Launch catastrophe and noncatastrophe analysis for the same exposure data
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View and export both catastrophe and noncatastrophe analysis results
Touchstone, which was introduced in January 2013, has gained wide acceptance across the marketplace by some of the largest insurers, reinsurers, and intermediaries. These companies are already experiencing the benefits of Touchstone, which offers unparalleled performance and sophisticated geospatial tools to help companies assess risk in all regions, including those for which detailed models do not yet exist. In addition, solutions to manage non-modeled sources of loss are well under way - including flood hazard maps for high risk regions that will enable companies to manage their accumulations and make better underwriting decisions.
Lee concluded, "The next generation of catastrophe modeling must offer solutions that empower companies, not hold them captive. Our vision for Touchstone is driven by our goal to provide the broadest range of analytics and services to help our clients develop a comprehensive risk management strategy, beyond our traditional focus on catastrophe events. That includes noncatastrophe loss information from ISO as well as analytics from other Verisk companies such as AER and Xactware, which will supplement the catastrophe loss analyses companies are undertaking today."
About AIR Worldwide
AIR Worldwide (AIR) is the scientific leader and most respected provider of risk modeling software and consulting services. AIR founded the catastrophe modeling industry in 1987 and today models the risk from natural catastrophes and terrorism in more than 90 countries. More than 400 insurance, reinsurance, financial, corporate, and government clients rely on AIR software and services for catastrophe risk management, insurance-linked securities, detailed site-specific wind and seismic engineering analyses, and agricultural risk management. AIR is a member of the Verisk Insurance Solutions group at Verisk Analytics (Nasdaq:VRSK) and is headquartered in Boston with additional offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.air-worldwide.com.
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For more information, contact:
Kevin Long
AIR Worldwide
617-267-6645
klong@air-worldwide.com