Insurance Australia Group Selects AIR’s New Earthquake Model for New Zealand to Help Manage Its Catastrophe Risk

Boston, Sept. 03, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sept. 3, 2019 — Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide announced that Insurance Australia Group (IAG), the largest general insurance company in Australia and New Zealand, has licensed AIR’s new Earthquake Model for New Zealand to help manage its catastrophe risk. AIR Worldwide is a Verisk (Nasdaq:VRSK) business.

“This model has been developed to help meet the wide spectrum of earthquake risk management needs of the insurance industry,” said Dr. Milan Simic, executive vice president and head of global business development for Verisk Insurance. “This includes the capability to use two seismicity models for the region. One is a time-independent model (TID) with no memory of past rupture history; the other is a time-dependent (TD) model that considers historical or prehistorical ruptures of specific seismic sources. Also captured in the model are the effects from subperils, including ground shaking, liquefaction, landslide, transocean basin tsunami, and fire following earthquakes.”

“AIR provides a scientifically credible view of risk, and we welcome their sophisticated earthquake model for New Zealand,” said Dr. Philip Conway, peril pricing manager at IAG. “As the largest insurer in New Zealand, we pride ourselves on being able to differentiate between risks based on their location, building type, occupancy, age, and other parameters that drive vulnerability, as this allows us to manage our risk as well as provide the mechanisms to encourage mitigation in the community. At the same time, having access to independent models such as AIR’s is of key importance to both our internal stakeholders and external partners.”

“Our collaboration with IAG has been ongoing for more than a decade, and we’re pleased that IAG has decided to leverage AIR’s new Earthquake Model for New Zealand to assist in managing their New Zealand risk,” said Ashish Jain, vice president and managing director of global business development for Verisk Insurance for Southeast Asia and ANZ. “This relationship further strengthens our commitment to bringing new and updated solutions to the sophisticated insurance markets in Australia and New Zealand.”

About AIR Worldwide
AIR Worldwide (AIR) provides risk modeling solutions that make individuals, businesses, and society more resilient to extreme events. In 1987, AIR Worldwide founded the catastrophe modeling industry and today models the risk from natural catastrophes, terrorism, pandemics, casualty catastrophes, and cyber incidents. Insurance, reinsurance, financial, corporate, and government clients rely on AIR’s advanced science, software, and consulting services for catastrophe risk management, insurance-linked securities, site-specific engineering analyses, and agricultural risk management. AIR Worldwide, a Verisk (Nasdaq:VRSK) business, is headquartered in Boston, with additional offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.air-worldwide.com.

About IAG
IAG is the parent company of a general insurance group with controlled operations in Australia and New Zealand. Our businesses underwrite over $11 billion of premium per annum, selling insurance under many leading brands, including NRMA Insurance, CGU, SGIO, SGIC, Swann Insurance and WFI (Australia); and NZI, State, AMI and Lumley Insurance (New Zealand).

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For more information, contact:
Kevin Long
AIR Worldwide
+1-617-267-6645
klong@air-worldwide.com