Brought to you by:

AIR upgrades southeast Asia cat models

AIR Worldwide has enhanced its modelling systems to assess typhoon and earthquake risks in disaster-prone southeast Asia.

The US catastrophe modeller is optimistic the steps will improve insurance coverage in the region, which remains low despite the frequency of such disasters.

“We believe our significant effort will provide clients with a better understanding of the risk, and therefore a distinct advantage when writing business in this region,” MD International Operations Milan Simic said. “Furthermore, only a fraction of the total economic risk from natural disasters is covered by the insurance industry today, particularly in Asia.

“We’re confident the adoption of our innovative new models will help narrow the protection gap by providing the industry with the necessary tools to better understand and manage catastrophe risk in this part of the world.”

The updated earthquake model can assess tsunami and liquefaction sub-perils for at-risk countries including Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan. The typhoon model has a precipitation-induced flooding module using high-resolution data and probabilistic storm surge modules for Hong Kong, the Philippines and Taiwan.

AIR has also expanded its model domain to include new typhoon risk areas (Guam, Macau, Saipan and Vietnam) and earthquake zones (Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei and Malaysia).

“A wealth of data has become available due to the number of catastrophes in this region, and AIR scientists have been conducting extensive research over the past 10 years to better understand these events,” EVP and Chief Research Officer Jayanta Guin said.

“The results are enhanced catastrophe models that will provide insurers and industry stakeholders with the most advanced view of shake, tsunami, liquefaction, wind, precipitation-induced flooding and storm surge risk in southeast Asia.”