FEATURED

Be Prepared. Are You Ready for Version 17?

Version 17 represents the broadest RMS release yet, incorporating significant improvements to two flagship RMS models: North Atlantic Hurricane and North America Earthquake.

Additionally, Version 17 contains new models and solutions including six countries in the Southeast Asia Earthquake Model, the South Korea and Taiwan Typhoon Models, and RiskAssessor™, providing custom wind vulnerability for large U.S. risks.

April was a busy launch month for many of the new Version 17 models and updates. RMS Owl can keep you ahead with the latest developments including the Peril Models and Data Products Roadmap document and the 2017 Resource Landing Page, which provides an extensive suite of resources, including executive briefings, datasheets, and scope and methodology documents.

Many of the new and updated models can run both on RiskLink^® Version 17 and Risk Modeler powered by RMS(one)^®. Contact your account manager for full details on how Version 17 affects models and software.

See How Risk Modeler Will Transform Your Business

Compare different model versions side-by-side on a single dashboard. Use notebooks for freeform investigation of exposure and loss. Design reinsurance structures and capture contract terms using contract definition language (CDL).

There is so much to explore with Risk Modeler powered by the RMS(one) platform. Risk Modeler offers rich, flexible representation of risks and financial structures, with intelligent model processing and big-data query capabilities.

To help you explore the potential, watch our short two-minute Risk Modeler demo videos examining model insights and reinsurance design. Josh Ellingson, head of training for RMS, has written a blog describing how Risk Modeler helps remove the procedural, tactical component of risk modeling, moving it to an efficient and speedy system. Or, see Risk Modeler for yourself, click to schedule a live demo.

Cyber Threat Extends to Property

Since the RMS Cyber Accumulation Management System (CAMS) was launched in February 2016, it has gained recognition as a new data standard, analytical framework, and functional platform for insurance clients to manage this emergent risk.

CAMS v1.0 focused on affirmative cyber insurance scenarios and loss processes from cyberattacks targeting information technology (IT) systems. The newly released CAMS v2.0 now explores a range of cyberattack scenarios that can cause physical damage to property, allowing property (re)insurers to manage this growing risk for the first time.

CAMS v2.0 recognizes that cyber risk is no longer confined to specialist writers of affirmative cyber insurance. With the rise of cyber-physical attacks, cyber risk is now a peril that can cause losses in traditional property insurance policies, which are either ambiguous or silent about whether they will pay out for cyber-triggered losses.

To allow insurers to identify silent exposures, RMS has analyzed the lines of business thought to be most vulnerable to cyber-physical attacks, such as commercial property, marine, energy, and industrial and facultative facilities. The five new risk scenarios in CAMS v2.0 allow insurers to identify silent exposures in these and other lines.

Joint RMS cyber and terrorism risk seminars were held in London (May 2) and New York (May 16), and a new RMS 2017 Cyber Risk Landscape report is available, explaining the key emerging cyber-risk trends and detailing the five new risk scenarios in CAMS v2.0.

Are You Capitalizing on Agricultural Risk?

With agricultural risk one of the top concerns for clients in emerging markets, RMS has added agriculture risk models for both India and China, two countries with the highest percentage GDP generated from agriculture. As part of RMS model development, parent company DMGT has transferred all the model assets from its AgRisk business to RMS.

With plans to expand agriculture modeling across Asia-Pacific and the Americas, RMS will leverage the scale of our global model development operations to provide a complete agricultural risk management service for local and global (re)insurers, such as high-touch modeling support, analytical services, training, and event response.

Mohsen Rahnama, chief risk modeling officer and general manager of the RMS models and data group, said, "We understand the framework and principles of the models and will combine our 30-plus years' experience in climate hazard modeling with the latest data collection and processing technology, and scientific understanding of the risk, to build the next generation of agricultural risk models for the industry."

Read the full announcement or click on these links to view product datasheets for the RMS^® India Agriculture Model and the RMS^® China Agriculture Model.

Drought: Systemic Risk Potential for Global Banks

Working with a consortium of five respected global financial resilience organizations, RMS has developed a drought stress-testing tool to help banks see how incorporating drought scenarios changes the perception of risk in their own loan portfolios. Based on the catastrophe modeling framework used by insurance clients for 25 years, the tool considers five drought scenarios in Brazil, China, Mexico, and the U.S. to model the impact on 19 different industry sectors, the companies in those sectors, and the likelihood that they will default on their loans.

The new tool has been piloted via stress tests conducted on select, sample corporate lending portfolios of nine international financial institutions, which combined represent more than US$10 trillion in assets.

"This project has enabled major financial institutions to quantify for the first time the potential systemic risk to their portfolios posed by drought," said Daniel Stander, managing director at RMS. "The tool builds on the advanced modeling techniques that RMS pioneered to manage the complicated exposures of (re)insurance multinationals."

Read the full announcement or visit the Global Canopy Programme website to see the Drought Stress Testing summary report.

Has That Oilfield Caused My Earthquake?

In the third and final blog in a series exploring induced seismicity, Robert Muir-Wood, chief research officer for RMS, explores the hypothesis of an earthquake hitting Los Angeles County, potentially due to oil extraction activities. Because of low earthquake insurance take-up and high policy deductibles, he suggests that affected L.A. residents would be contacting their friendly, neighborhood lawyer, developing class-action suits as they look for someone to blame: the oilfield operators.

Muir-Wood looks at the oil boom days in Los Angeles from the 1920s and details research showing that lots of quakes from that time were caused by oil extraction, then turns to look for similarities between California and the fracking-induced earthquakes of Oklahoma. Read the RMS blog.

RMS Helps Santiago Build Its City Resilience Program

Santiago de Chile, the capital of Chile and home to 6.1 million citizens, has announced that it will sign a commitment to dedicate 10 percent of the city's budget toward actions that build on its resilience strategy. RMS, working in partnership with 100 Resilient Cities, helped Santiago with its plan through the provision of earthquake modeling.

Daniel Stander, managing director at RMS, emphasizes that "Chileans have lived with the risk of earthquakes for generations, but today's probabilistic model offers information on that risk that was previously unavailable. Santiago's municipal leaders can direct public resources to the most profitable investments to make communities more resilient." Read the full announcement.

A Last Hola from NOLA

Missing New Orleans? Craving some crawfish or a freshly fried beignet? Now, unfortunately we can't promise any more delicious NOLA food, but we invite you to keep the spirit of this year's Exceedance in New Orleans alive and watch our short highlights video.

If you did join us, we'd like to thank you for taking the time to attend Exceedance, and everyone at RMS appreciates your support. There was so much to take in at Exceedance, and we know that it is impossible to see everything, so all the track presentations and even the giant Horizons posters are available for download.

Planning for Exceedance 2018 is now in its early stages, stay tuned for launch announcements coming in the fall.

RMS at Global Industry Events

Join RMS thought leaders from across the business who are participating in industry events during the next couple of months.

Third International Conference on Urban Sustainability and Resilience
June 13-14, The Building Centre, London

RMS Chief Research Officer Dr. Robert Muir-Wood, will be giving a keynote speech at the USAR conference hosted by The Centre for Urban Sustainability and Resilience.

Insurance Risk Evolution Conference
June 15-16, Prague, Czech Republic

RMS Chief Research Officer Dr. Robert Muir-Wood will speak at the conference on the application of risk modeling to help extend the flood insurance market in central Europe.

Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies 2017 Risk Summit
June 22-23, Cambridge Judge Business School, Cambridge, U.K.

Dr. Andrew Coburn, director of the advisory board at the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies and senior vice president at RMS, will be featured in the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies Research Showcase on June 22. The following day, Dr. Coburn will lead a plenary session titled "Status and Trends Towards a Smart World."

Find a full list of RMS events on our website.