RMS launches cat model for quakes in India

NEWARK, Calif.—Risk modeling firm Risk Management Solutions Inc. has released the RMS India Earthquake Model.

The new model was developed for use in the RMS RiskLink catastrophe modeling system, and was built in partnership with Aon Re Asia and RMS geospatial and information technology unit RMSI. The model provides access to detailed data on insured exposure, soil data, inventory and local building standards.

RMS said it was driven to develop the model by the continued growth and maturation of the Indian insurance industry, coupled with the significant seismic risk in the country.

With the tariff system in the Indian insurance market being lifted in 2007, the market environment in India will become more competitive and companies will be able to realize a technical advantage by using catastrophe models to manage accumulation, set prices and report solvency margins, RMS said.

The source model underlying the new RMS release contains nearly 100 seismic sources subdivided into thousands of faults and is capable of generating more than 40,000 different earthquake scenarios, the risk modeling firm said.

Newark, Calif.-based RMS said a detailed loss module intended for more refined modeling of individual locations, accounts and portfolios will be included in version 7.0 of the RiskLink and RiskBrowser catastrophe modeling platforms, scheduled for release this spring.