PERILS updates exposure and market loss data including UK flood

Zurich based PERILS AG, the independent provider of industry-wide European catastrophe insurance data and loss indices, has announced the release of a 2013 update to its PERILS Europe Industry Exposure Database. The database contains updated European windstorm property exposure information as well as property sums insured exposed to UK flood.

European windstorm data includes updated market-wide property sums insured for Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The data includes in-force sums insured is at 1st January 2013, with granularity at the CRESTA zone, property occupancy type (residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural) and coverage type (content, building, business interruption) level. Information regarding the relevant deductibles has also been updated.

Compared to last year the total sums insured has increased by 1.9% (+1.1% at constant EUR exchange rates). On a country by country basis the sums insured have changed between -4.9% and +2.9%. Year on year changes are largely driven by movements in collected sums insured data and movement in market benchmarks, according to PERILS.

As well as the exposure information the PERILS database includes loss data for European windstorm and future UK flood events where the overall industry exposure exceeds EUR200m. Loss data is available at the same level of granularity as the exposure information, with intensity measurements such as wind speed provided on a CRESTA zone level.

PERILS said that the combination of up-to-date exposure data and market loss information based on identical sources and
methodology enables its users to validate European storm risk models and to perform exposure and loss market benchmarking.

The data can also be used for any transactions utilising industry loss triggers, such as industry loss warranty (ILW) contracts or insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bonds. Using the database custom-made triggers can be created which PERILS said can result in reduced basis risk for sponsors of these deals. The PERILS database can also be used to carry out risk assessment of these transactions, which can make it useful to investors looking to analyse triggers within transactions.

Eduard Held, Head of Products at PERILS, commented on the announcement; “With the release of the 2013 Europe Industry Exposure Database we have seen a further improvement in the quality of the cat exposure data provided by PERILS. A key factor in this has been our ability to continue to broaden the market’s support. In addition, over the last three years, we have gained valuable insight from both previous exposure updates and computations of market losses. All of this has helped us enhance not only the quality but also the robustness of the industry data.”