Pitney Bowes MapInfo, a provider of location intelligence, introduced the Risk Data Suite for underwriting, rating, and portfolio risk management. Based on historical information (updated annually) on weather and natural disaster-related occurrences, the product offers data that enables property/casualty underwriters, actuaries, and risk managers to make better decisions in areas such as: underwriting policy analyses and rating; custom rating territory creation and maintenance; credit and risk scoring; portfolio risk aggregation and realistic disaster scenario analysis; and claims planning and preparedness.

The database consists of four individual bundles with high-definition data and aggregate exposure grids. The four bundles include:

Earthquake Bundle--provides a historical record of earthquakes since 1492, enabling insurers to calculate rates based on proximity to fault lines. Data includes information on fault lines, fault zones, earthquake epicenters and aggregate exposure grids.

Weather Bundle--includes geographic data on occurrences of hurricanes, hail storms, tornados, windstorms and lightning based on the location, movement and exposure of a single event, enabling users to more realistically model portfolio disaster scenarios or to evaluate individual policy exposures.

Windpool Bundle--three layers of data feature maps of Florida wind speed and wind-borne debris regions, as well as State Windpool Eligibility Zones to help insurers make property, wind, or hail insurance available to qualified applicants who are unable to secure such insurance in the normal insurance marketplace.

Mass Movement Bundle--the initial release of Risk Data Suite features maps of volcanic hazard zones for Hawaii, dividing it into zones based on the probability of coverage by lava flows.

"While weather-related disasters can happen at any time and are unavoidable, it is essential that insurance companies are armed with a complete and accurate picture of potential weather perils based on past occurrences," says Craig Bedell, director of global insurance for Pitney Bowes MapInfo. "This data set provides a powerful analytical tool for critical insurance decisions in underwriting, portfolio risk and realistic disaster scenario analysis, and claims planning and preparedness."

Special Reports /

New Risk Data Suite for Risk Assessment Improves Underwriting

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