BOSTON, May 29, 2003 — AIR Worldwide Corporation (AIR) today announced the certification of its2003 Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Model by the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology. For the seventh consecutive year the AIR model has been certified for use in residential rate filings in Florida. AIR's hurricane model is available to primary insurance companies in its CLASIC/2TM software.
"AIR successfully met all of the stringent standards set forth by the Commission," said David Lalonde, senior vice president at AIR. "The Commission has also given full recognition to all of the individual risk characteristics accounted for in the AIR model, including storm shutters, enhanced roof strength and impact-resistant glazing for windows. This aspect of the model is increasingly important in light of the Florida Building Code of 2001 and gives insurance companies the ability to rationally price credits for policyholders who take action to mitigate their potential property damage due to hurricanes."
New features in the 2003 AIR hurricane model include the incorporation of a higher-resolution data set for land use/land cover, which enables more accurate estimation of local wind speeds. Other refinements include a new approach for estimating radius of maximum winds, increased time resolution of wind field computation and an updated historical catalog.
About AIR Worldwide Corporation
AIR Worldwide Corporation (AIR), a wholly owned subsidiary of Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO), is a leading catastrophe- and weather-risk-modeling company. Through its web-based and computer software solutions (ClimateCastSM,CLASIC/2TM, CATRADER®, CATMAP®/2, AIRProfiler®),AIR services the insurance, reinsurance and capital markets. AIR's models simulate losses from both man-made and natural catastrophes in more than 35 countries. AIR is headquartered in Boston and has additional offices in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit the AIR website at www.air-worldwide.com.
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 analytical and decision-support products, consulting, technical services, statistical services and data processing. ISO's products help customers with sales and prospecting, underwriting, rating and quoting, customer management, policy administration, product development, claims administration and fraud detection. Through its iiX and Intellicorp subsidiaries, ISO also provides motor vehicle reports, police reports and criminal-records information. Through its AIR Worldwide subsidiary, ISO helps customers with reinsurance analysis and assessment of the risk of natural and man-made catastrophes. 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