RMS News Archive

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	"Data Quality Matters" Global Reinsurance December 2008 In this article with Global Reinsurance, Kenna Mawk, director of data validations solutions, discusses the competitive necessity of high-quality data in catastrophe modeling.
	"A Guide to Catastrophe Modelling," The Review December 2008 This reference, authored by RMS experts, lifts the lid on the mechanics of catastrophe modeling, with discussions of Cat modeling fundamentals, modeling hurricane, earthquake, and terrorism risk, and the exploration of topical issues such as data quality, the capital markets, risk mitigation and new frontiers in risk modeling.
	Lloyd's 360 Film: Coastal Communities and Climate Change," Lloyd's of London October 2008 This film, featuring experts in climate sciences, including Dr. Celine Herweijer, director of climate change, looks at sea level rise and its impact on coastal communities, and discusses the joint RMS and Lloyd's report "Coastal Communities and Climate Change: Maintaining Future Insurability."
	"Terror Risk: The Next Seven Years" Risk & Insurance® September 2008 Dr. Andrew Coburn, vice president of catastrophe research and director of terrorism research, and Dr. Gordon Woo, catastrophe risk consultant, discuss the current stalemate between the forces of radicalism and the coalition of moderate states, and how long this equilibrium will last.
	"How did the Terror Risk Models Stack Up?" Risk & Insurance® September 2008 How well did the models do seven years after Sept. 11, 2001? In this article, Dr. Andrew Coburn and Dr. Gordon Woo discuss how the modeled preferences—sabotage, conflagration, aircraft attacks, and the use of standoff weapons—have corresponded closely to those observed worldwide.
	"GR Survey: Cat Modelling" Global Reinsurance July 2008 A recent survey conducted by Global Reinsurance finds that catastrophe models play a crucial role in helping reinsurers and insurers better manage their exposures. The article includes a discussion with Paul VanderMarck on the relationship between underwriting and catastrophe modeling, and the role of politics in the modeling industry.
	"How Do Our Coastal Cities Fare under Rising Flood Risk?" Catastrophe Risk Management April 2008 In this article with Catastrophe Risk Management, principal scientist Dr. Celine Herweijer and others discuss how rising sea levels will amplify the flood risk in coastal cities. Understanding future coastal flood risk requires a multi-disciplinary approach, combining expertise across climate science, catastrophe modeling, economics, and policy.
	"Data Quality Key to Building a Good Cat Model," Canadian Underwriter March 2008 Improving the quality of data entered into models can have a dramatic effect on the models’ output, says chief markets officer Matthew Grant. Software can be taught how to recognize and address irregularities in a systematic and auditable way, using predefined rules or heuristics that replicate expert intuition.
	"RMS: U.K. Quake Could Boost Property Cover," Best Week Europe March 3, 2008 In this podcast, Dr. Andrew Sorby, model manager for Europe earthquake at RMS, discusses the affect of the February 27 Lincolnshire Earthquake on property insurance.
	"London to Test Plans for Response to Floods," Financial Times February 15, 2008 Government agencies and emergency services attempt to tackle London’s worst-case scenario for a natural disaster. According to a report last September by RMS, a flood in London could inflict £5 billion ($10 billion) of insurance claims, a figure that could run much higher if the barrier failed.
	"RMS Launches European Wind Storm Risk Index," Financial Times February 15, 2008 Peter Nakada, managing director of RMS Consulting, discusses the launch of Paradex Europe Windstorm, the first parametric index for assessing insured industry losses from windstorms in Europe.
	"Soapbox: The Detail is in the Data," The Review February 2008 Chief markets officer Matthew Grant discusses how data quality has become a key driver in pricing risk and increasingly is seen by rating agencies as a proxy for the effectiveness of management controls. Improving data quality has a direct impact on catastrophe model loss output, and can impact reinsurance costs by many millions of dollars.
	"Insurers Try to Calculate Risks of Climate Change," All Things Considered, NPR News January 21, 2008 Before Hurricane Katrina came along, U.S. insurers didn't consider climate change when they assessed the risk of events like floods. Now they're factoring in a changing world, and it's costing consumers in places like New Orleans. Chief research officer Dr. Robert Muir-Wood is featured in this report.