PCS launches industry loss index & estimates for Global Aviation

In the latest new product roll-out to its specialty insurance and reinsurance lines loss reporting services, Property Claim Services (PCS) will now provide data on worldwide aviation loss events.

The new PCS Global Aviation service launches officially today and historical insured loss event information will already be available to subscribers, while importantly the platform is also ready to support risk transfer transactions from the start.

The service has a focus on Airline and General Aviation, while it also offers granularity on a line of business basis for each event, enabling improved risk and capital management decisions to be taken.

PCS Global Aviation focuses on events with estimated industry-wide insurance market losses of at least US $50 million and also includes loss estimates for general aviation events where readily available.

PCS said that it has been seeing significant market demand for an independent industry insured loss estimate solution for this class of business.

Market participants from Bermuda, London, and other key insurance or reinsurance jurisdictions have approached PCS and offered support to help develop and launch this new collection of aviation sector data.

The database includes industry-wide insured losses, with breakdowns by class of business, as well as flight numbers, tail numbers, departure and arrival airports, and also the age of the aircraft involved.

PCS has already launched specialty lines industry loss data services covering Marine and Energy, Cyber risks, Terrorism risks, and Global Large Losses and of course remains the most widely used catastrophe loss data, index and reporting service.

PCS Global Aviation is the latest and as with the other services it will offer utility to the insurance-linked securities (ILS) space, especially those allocating capital to aviation lines of reinsurance or retrocession.

These services can support re/insurer risk and capital management efforts and decision-making, as well as reinsurance and retrocessional risk transfer, including in ILS forms such as industry-loss warranties (ILW’s) and catastrophe bonds.

Alex Mican, senior PCS product development director, commented on the launch, “The value of a historical database, especially in the aviation sector is irrefutable. Risk transfer today requires reference events from the past, and our clients committed to helping us deliver a robust data set with more than four decades of losses. Through continual feedback and market collaboration in developing PCS Global Aviation, we reduced the uncertainty that usually comes with new product adoption and put credible estimates in front of our clients.”

Ted Gregory, director of global PCS operations, added, “Our clients have been asking for a solution for the global aviation industry for quite some time now, and PCS Global Aviation represents several years of effort by our team and the market. Continued high levels of client engagement and collaboration have resulted in a collection of more than 200 past events and the capabilities to add more in accordance with our methodology. PCS is bringing the tool to market, but the credit for developing it goes to the clients who stood shoulder to shoulder with us every step of the way.”

Tom Johansmeyer, head of PCS, explained that with PCS Global Aviation there’s more data to come, which will enhance PCS’ approach to specialty lines.

“Independent industrywide insured loss estimates are crucial to the basic operations of the re/insurance industry. And as we can increase granularity, we’re able to help our clients solve more problems. Throughout the development process, we saw that basic understanding of worldwide aviation insured losses was patchy and inconsistent, which inevitably causes pricing inefficiency and imprecise risk transfer,” Johansmeyer said.

Adding, “The PCS team sees the launch of PCS Global Aviation not just as a new capability but as validation that our focus and priorities are in the right place. It’s always exciting to see the market come to PCS first when they need a solution – and it’s even more exciting to see that effort culminate in a new launch. I’d like to thank our collaboration partners for once again making such a tangible expression of their faith in PCS.”