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RMS Launches New ExposureRefine™ Service to Assess and Enhance Exposure
Data Quality
ExposureSource™
Database Helps to Increase
Accuracy of Modeled Losses Newark,
Calif. – May 19, 2008 – Risk Management Solutions (RMS) today
announced the launch of a new service to systematically assess and
enhance the quality of exposure data within the insurance industry. The
ExposureRefine™ service, believed to provide the most comprehensive
assessment of portfolio exposure data quality today, will help insurers
and reinsurers systematically improve the accuracy of their catastrophe
loss analysis and provide a consistent way to measure and benchmark data
quality.
“Over the past 20
years, insurers’ risk management practices have become increasingly
sophisticated, but the quality of exposure
data still varies widely between companies,” commented Hemant
Shah, CEO of RMS. “Those organizations with
advanced processes for managing data quality experience fewer surprises
and can gain commercial advantage through improved underwriting results,
superior financial strength ratings, and favorable access to reinsurance
and capital markets capacity. In a softening market, robust practices
to identify and remediate poor quality data will be particularly
important.”
ExposureRefine uses a combination of RMS analytics
and databases to assess, measure, and improve the completeness and
accuracy of exposure data. Its foundation is the
ExposureSource™ database of high-resolution information on U.S.
buildings, which is derived from
a range of third-party sources, as well as data developed from extensive
field surveys, consultations with local planning departments, and
interpretations of satellite imagery and building photographs. The ExposureRefine service also leverages a suite of analytics that quantify
the completeness and resolution of data, and heuristics that assess
accuracy by identifying suspicious or illogical combinations, and
surfacing inconsistent patterns.
“We now
have the advanced capability to measure the completeness and accuracy of
an insurer’s U.S. catastrophe data, benchmark these key performance
indicators, and articulate the confidence of our assessments and the
impact on modeled losses. We can then prioritize where improvements
should be made and enhance the data accordingly,” said Ajay Lavakare,
senior vice president and managing director of Data Solutions at RMS.
“We are delighted to
have been one of the early adopters of the ExposureRefine service,”
reported Alberto Leal, actuarial director and corporate catastrophe
manager of Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company. “At Fireman’s Fund we make
every effort to ensure we collect and record the highest quality
information from our policyholders. RMS’ work has confirmed the strength
of our portfolio, and their findings have helped us to identify further
opportunities on where to focus our ongoing efforts."
Data quality is not
only important for informing catastrophe models, but a company’s ability
to manage its data is seen as a leading indicator of operational risk
controls and management best practice. “With over 200 people working on
these data quality initiatives at RMS, this is a major commitment that
rivals the magnitude of our work in catastrophe modeling less than a
decade ago. Already, we are working to further expand our capabilities,
with the objective of providing a global approach that addresses all
lines of business with exposure to catastrophe risk,” said Mr. Lavakare.
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