India and China models introduced first with plans to expand coverage further in Asia-Pacific and to the Americas
RMS has added agricultural risk models for India and China to its growing line of emerging risks models, and plans to expand coverage across Asia-Pacific and the Americas. The addition of the models is part of the company’s strategic focus to help its clients close the coverage gap.
“RMS is very well positioned to develop agricultural risk models and help ramp the industry’s understanding of the risk,” said Mohsen Rahnama, chief risk modeling officer and general manager of the RMS models & data group. “We understand the framework and principles of the models, and will combine our 30-plus years’ experience in climate hazard modeling with the latest data collection and processing technology, and scientific understanding of the risk, to build the next generation of agricultural risk models for the industry. Also important is the modeling work we do that lies outside our long-established analysis of catastrophe risk for the insurance industry; the recent conclusion of our drought stress-testing project for the banking industry has given us deep insight into the drivers of water scarcity, which is a key hazard for agricultural risk.”
As part of RMS’ model development, its parent company DMGT has transferred all the model assets from its AgRisk business to RMS. RMS will leverage the capacity of its global model development operations to provide a complete agricultural risk management service for local and global (re)insurers, such as high-touch modeling support, analytical services, training, and event response.
“Countries throughout Asia-Pacific are experiencing rapid growth. RMS is committed to helping our clients’ success in these dynamic markets by providing a comprehensive suite of risk and analytics solutions,” said Steve Hurcom, senior vice president, client development Europe and Asia. “Agricultural risk is one of the top concerns and big opportunities for our clients in Asia-Pacific and Latin America, and they need robust models to manage the risk as part of their overall enterprise risk.”
Asia-Pacific and Latin America remain strategic priorities for RMS. The company is releasing significant modeling capability this year for local and global clients writing business in these regions. The new agricultural risk models for India and China – available today – will be followed in April by updated earthquake models for Indonesia and the Philippines; four new earthquake models for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam; in addition to wind and typhoon models for Taiwan and South Korea, and; the latest views of risk for marine and North Atlantic hurricane covering the Latin America region.
