RMS Advances Climate Risk Modeling and Moves More Models to High Definition

NEWARK, CA – 18 May, 2022 – RMS^®, a Moody's Analytics company and world-leading risk modeling and solutions company, today announces it will be releasing four new High Definition™ (HD) models, including Europe Windstorm, North America Winterstorm (WT), North America Severe Convective Storm (SCS), and Terrorism.

RMS HD Models represent the next generation of risk modeling, delivering deeper analysis and granularity from Moody's. The HD probabilistic models incorporate a high-fidelity, simulation-based framework for modeling event frequency and severity, to provide a major step forward in the quality of catastrophe risk quantification. The framework allows for event footprints to be represented more realistically across larger event sets.

The new RMS Europe Windstorm HD Model further enhances the current model and will cover 17 countries, adding Finland and Lichtenstein. The HD model includes a climate variability view and has expanded storm surge analytics to include the U.K., Ireland, France, and Belgium. Storm clustering will be modeled natively within the HD framework, together with an option to run the model without clustering. Industrial facilities, builders’ risk, and marine cargo will also all be covered. With the new model RMS will be able to offer a complete High-Definition solution for all atmospheric climate perils across Europe including Europe SCS HD Model, Europe Windstorm HD Model - and the Europe Flood HD Model, which was particularly relevant during the Berndt flooding in 2021.

The exceptionally high insured losses from the U.S. severe winter weather event of February 2021 placed the winter storm peril in sharp focus. Both the RMS North America Winterstorm and RMS North America SCS HD Models benefit from a simulation-based framework that better represents the time-dependent nature of SCS/WT event frequency and hazard. This includes event clustering, seasonality, and the representation of cumulative hazard such as multi-day SCS outbreaks, or the cumulative snow buildup on a building due to multiple snowfalls.

RMS launched its market-leading Terrorism Model in 2002, to help firms better manage exposed risks and quantify losses and casualties due to macro terrorism. As part of the suite of capabilities Moody's provides clients, the new RMS Terrorism HD Model offers increased transparency in exceedance probability (EP) generation, with outputs and analysis processes consistent with other RMS HD models. Workflow improvements include expanded financial model capabilities, multi-region selections, property and workers compensation in a single analysis, and introduces selectable causes of loss: conventional, fire only, or chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN).

The planned general availability for the RMS Terrorism HD Model will be in 2022, Europe Windstorm HD Model in 2023, and North America Winterstorm and North America Severe Convective Storm in 2024.

Julie Serakos, Senior Vice President, Model Production Management, RMS, said: “The RMS High Definition Models are delivering a step-change in risk analysis across the insurance industry. All the technological capabilities within the RMS Intelligent Risk Platform™ support the RMS HD model enhancements for clients. These model announcements build on Moody’s continued commitment to bringing reliable and precise analytics to the modelers, underwriters, the C-suite, and across the industry. RMS has always invested in leading science and technology to ensure that clients have some of the best information available to help them with their risk decisions.”