Insurance Industry Rapidly Adopts Touchstone, AIR’s Next-Generation Platform

Insurance industry standards and technology

BOSTON, July 18, 2013 — The insurance industry is rapidly adopting TouchstoneTM, AIR Worldwide’s next-generation catastrophe modeling platform. Since the new software’s release in January 2013, Touchstone has gained wide acceptance across the marketplace by some of the largest insurers, reinsurers, and intermediaries.

“With the release of Touchstone, AIR is offering a robust and reliable platform that we can easily integrate into our proprietary catastrophe management system, APEX,” said Alan Calder, group head of catastrophe risk at Aspen. “Part of our risk management strategy is to evaluate and understand multiple views of risk. Our R&D department blends multiple external models such as AIR’s with our internal research. We appreciate the additional flexibility and depth of insight that Touchstone offers, as it gives us more control in terms of how we manage our overall catastrophe risk.”

Among the many companies already deploying Touchstone are reinsurance brokers Aon Benfield, Guy Carpenter, and Willis Re; insurers such as FM Global; and reinsurers such as Aspen Re, Montpelier Re, and TransRe.

“The installation of Touchstone was effortless, and we were up and running in just a matter of days,” said Gero Michel, PhD, MSc, GMP, CRO, and head of risk analytics at Montpelier Re. “Within the production environment, we’ve seen markedly reduced run times, and the platform helps us dramatically streamline our detailed modeling workflow. Our new ability to visualize and drill into exposure enhances our analytical capabilities and increases our underwriting skills for both our insurance and reinsurance business.”Insurance industry technology

Touchstone allows users to gain a deeper understanding of their exposures and enterprisewide loss potential, develop insight into the drivers of uncertainty, generate information on demand to make the right business decisions, and communicate the risk in clear language to all stakeholders. Touchstone features dedicated modules for assessing and improving data quality, understanding location-level hazard, performing geospatial analytics for both modeled and nonmodeled countries using advanced GIS and mapping techniques, and performing detailed loss analyses at run times far faster than previously possible. Touchstone deploys in whatever manner satisfies the needs of clients — on premises, in the cloud, or fully integrated with their own business workflow systems.

“We’re pleased with the overwhelmingly positive client feedback regarding Touchstone,” said Uday Virkud, P.E., executive vice president at AIR Worldwide. “Offering choice to companies has clearly resonated, as clients appreciate the versatility in deploying Touchstone in a manner best suited for their specific needs. In addition, our vision for Touchstone goes well beyond making our existing models easier to access and use. Our clients are immensely excited about the wide range of enhancements in the pipeline — enhancements that will enable them to better manage their enterprisewide risk and stay ahead of evolving industry needs.”

AIR’s vision for Touchstone is to go beyond the ownership and management of catastrophe risk. As a Verisk Analytics (Nasdaq:VRSK) subsidiary, AIR is in a unique position to take advantage of the vast data stores of ISO and other Verisk Analytics businesses. One example is the ability to quantify combined catastrophe and rolling out these capabilities in Touchstone next year.

Virkud concluded, “While we have invested and will continue to invest heavily in Touchstone, of equal importance to the software is our continuing investment in our models. Our models have long been considered the most reliable in the industry, and we will continue to deliver what our clients have come to expect from us — scientifically advanced models that serve as the trusted currency by which to manage and transfer risk. Touchstone gives companies all the tools they need to harness the
power of the models — and truly own their risk.”

About AIR Worldwide
AIR Worldwide (AIR) is the scientific leader and most respected provider of risk modeling software and consulting services. AIR founded the catastrophe modeling industry in 1987 and today models the risk from natural catastrophes and terrorism in more than 90 countries. More than 400 insurance, reinsurance, financial, corporate, and government clients rely on AIR software and services for catastrophe risk management, insurance-linked securities, detailed site-specific wind and seismic engineering analyses, and agricultural risk management. AIR is a member of the Verisk Insurance Solutions group at Verisk Analytics (Nasdaq:VRSK) and is headquartered in Boston with additional offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.air-worldwide.com.

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