BOSTON, January 12, 2004 — ACE Tempest Reinsurance Ltd. (ACE Tempest Re) and AIR Worldwide Corporation(AIR) today announced the first implementation of an innovative toolset, CAToolsTM, which significantly increases the efficiency of the underwriting and risk management process through the seamless integration of catastrophe modeling with the global reinsurer's underwriting and risk management systems.
Insurers and reinsurers have long been seeking a way to improve their workflow efficiency through such integration. ACE Tempest Re is among the first in the industry to achieve this objective with the implementation of AIR's CATools. ACE Tempest Re's underwriters are now able to access AIR's catastrophe loss information directly, without leaving their proprietary Heuron underwriting system and no longer need to exchange significant data volumes with a separate modeling system.
"The risk assessment provided by the catastrophe models is a vital element of Tempest's catastrophe management process. The ability to run our analyses from Heuron directly against our exposure databases will ultimately have a significant impact on the speed with which we can service our clients," said Sean Ringsted, chief risk officer at ACE Global Reinsurance. "This pioneering integration of CATools into our Heuron platform will save us significant time and resources and further improve our ability to meet our clients' needs. It is a great testament both to the hard work of the ACE Tempest Re Heuron team and AIR's willingness to understand and provide a product that met our business and technology objectives."
CATools is an application programming interface (API) offering insurers two options based on industry standard protocols. The first is a component-based API that is compatible with any Windows-based underwriting system. Another option is a web services API that connects with any underwriting platform via the Internet or an intranet.
The component system gives users access to AIR's full suite of catastrophe modeling capabilities including geocoding, hazard analysis, full probabilistic loss analysis, and its CLASIC/2TM database to store exposure information and analysis results.
"AIR's mission is to develop solutions that fit the evolving needs of our clients. We believe the future for catastrophe modeling infrastructure is the full integration with insurers' underwriting and policy rating systems. CATools enables insurers to spend less time on data processing and more time on what matters, namely, analysis of the results and decision making," said Vivek Basrur, executive vice president at AIR.
AIR will continue to offer insurers and reinsurers access to its catastrophe modeling technology through intuitively designed and easy-to-use interactive applications, including CATStationTM,CLASIC/2TM, CATRADER® and AIRProfiler®. Current users of these applications have the option to integrate AIR technology with their own underwriting solutions using CATools.
About AIR Worldwide Corporation
AIR Worldwide Corporation is a leading risk modeling company helping clients manage the financial impact of catastrophes and weather. Utilizing the latest science and technology, AIR models natural catastrophes in more than 35 countries and the risk from terrorism in the United States. Other areas of expertise include site-specific seismic engineering analysis, catastrophe bonds and property replacement cost valuation. Founded in 1987, AIR offers its insurance, reinsurance, corporate and government clients a complete line of risk modeling software and consulting services that produce consistent and reliable results. Headquartered in Boston, AIR has additional offices in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit www.air-worldwide.com.
About ACE Tempest Re
ACE Tempest Re, a leading Bermuda-based catastrophe reinsurance company, is a subsidiary of ACE Limited(NYSE:ACE), the holding company of the ACE Group of Companies. The ACE Group of Companies provides insurance and reinsurance for a diverse group of clients. The ACE Group conducts its business on a global basis with operating subsidiaries in nearly 50 countries.
About ISO
ISO is a leading source of information, products and services related to property and liability risk. For a broad spectrum of commercial and personal lines of insurance, ISO provides data, analytical and decision-support products; consulting; data processing; and technical, statistical and actuarial services. ISO field services include on-site rating and underwriting services and the evaluation of community loss-mitigation efforts. ISO's products help customers with sales and prospecting, underwriting, rating and quoting, customer management, policy administration, product development, claims administration and fraud detection. ISO's AIR Worldwide subsidiary provides technologies to assess and manage natural and man-made extreme-event risk. Through its ISO Claims Services, Inc. (iiX unit) and Intellicorp subsidiaries, ISO provides motor vehicle reports and criminal-records information and through its AscendantOne unit delivers rating, quoting and policy-administration solutions. In the United States and around the world, ISO serves insurers, reinsurers, agents, brokers, self-insureds, risk managers, insurance regulators and other government agencies.
Release: Immediate
Contacts:
Giuseppe Barone / Erica Helton
MWW Group (for ISO)
201-507-9500
gbarone@mww.com / ehelton@mww.com
Mike Gannon (AIR)
617-267-6645
mgannon@air-worldwide.com