PERILS updates Europe windstorm industry exposure database

PERILS AG, the independent Zurich-based company providing industry-wide European catastrophe insurance data, has released an updated version of its PERILS Europe Windstorm Industry Exposure Database.

The database contains updated market-wide property sums insured for: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The data is taken on the 1st January 2011 and so uses the in-force sum insured as of that time. Granularity within the dataset is down to CRESTA Zone level, property occupancy type (residential, commercial, agricultural, industrial) and coverage type level (content, building, business interruption). Information about prevailing deductibles has also been updated. The extrapolation methodology for calculating the market level data remains unchanged.

Compared to the previous year of 2010, the total sums insured (TSI) movement across all nine markets combined is +4.6% (+2.7% at constant EUR exchange rates). Changes in country-wide sums insured vary between -6% and +13%. This year-onyear development is mainly driven by movements in collected TSI data and movements in market benchmarks.

PERILS Industry Exposure Database 2011: the database contains market-wide property sums insured per CRESTA zone and property line of business. Click image for larger version.

As well as the exposure information, the PERILS Europe windstorm database contains loss data for windstorm events exceeding an overall industry loss of EUR 200m. The losses are available at the same level of granularity as the exposure information. Gust speed information is provided on a CRESTA Zone level.

The combination of up-to-date exposure data and market loss information based on identical sources and methodology enables users to validate European storm risk models and to perform exposure and loss market benchmarking. For insurance risk transactions based on industry losses (ILW, ILS), the database facilitates the definition of custom-made triggers resulting in reduced basis risk for protection buyers. It can also be used to carry out the risk assessment of such transactions, thereby ensuring  consistency with the trigger definition.

Edi Held, Head of Sales & Products at PERILS, comments: “Due to the increased support of the European insurance industry, the quality of the PERILS Industry Exposure & Loss Database has further improved over the last 12 months. We are very happy about this fact and look forward to continuing to work closely with our data providing insurance companies and database users to ensure that our industry data is of the highest quality and of the greatest practical benefit.”