WaterLine Provides Location-Specific Risk Assessment Analytics for Flood
JERSEY CITY, N.J., October 18, 2018 - Verisk (Nasdaq:VRSK), a leading data analytics provider, announced today the launch of WaterLine(TM), an underwriting tool that scores flood risk for all properties in the contiguous United States, helping insurers meet the needs of the growing number of homes and businesses vulnerable to flood.
WaterLine, developed by Verisk businesses ISO and AIR Worldwide, is based on advanced models of river, surface, and storm surge flooding. The tool can help insurers underwrite any property, including those not traditionally considered flood-prone. WaterLine can also help insurers that don't offer flood insurance serve their customers better by providing them with critical information about their level of flood risk.
WaterLine comes to market just months after floods damaged homes and disrupted businesses in communities across the United States: from Dane County, Wisconsin, where emergency officials reported that just 2 percent of residential and business damage was insured against recent flooding, to Ellicott City, Maryland, which endured its second 1,000-year rain event in two years, according to the National Weather Service. And when Hurricane Florence hit the Carolinas last month with winds, storm surge, and historic inland flooding, less than 340,000 out of the 5 million homes in those states had flood insurance, based on U.S. government and AIR data.
"For decades, outdated regional flood maps and a lack of detailed risk information have discouraged many property insurers from taking on flood exposure," said Marc Treacy, managing director of flood at ISO. "As numerous storms over the past few years show, flood is a hazard that homeowners and businesses can no longer ignore. WaterLine provides the critical information property insurers need to assess flood risk confidently."
The solution scores properties on a 0-to-100 relative risk scale and shows the factors contributing to the score. It uses advanced probabilistic simulations based on hydrologic and hydraulic engineering from AIR's Inland Flood Model for the United States.
"WaterLine can also help insurers expand into the emerging flood market with underwriting information that can help both personal and commercial insurers achieve profitable growth," continued Treacy.
Through its various property/casualty insurance businesses, Verisk offers a wide-ranging suite of solutions to support flood insurance programs-including policy programs for personal and commercial lines-as well as individual risk assessment, portfolio analysis, and claims estimation.
About Verisk
Verisk (Nasdaq:VRSK) is a leading data analytics provider serving customers in insurance, energy and specialized markets, and financial services. Using advanced technologies to collect and analyze billions of records, Verisk draws on unique data assets and deep domain expertise to provide first-to-market innovations that are integrated into customer workflows. Verisk offers predictive analytics and decision support solutions to customers in rating, underwriting, claims, catastrophe and weather risk, global risk analytics, natural resources intelligence, economic forecasting, and many other fields. Around the world, Verisk helps customers protect people, property, and financial assets.
Headquartered in Jersey City, N.J., Verisk operates in 30 countries and is a member of Standard & Poor's S&P 500® Index. In 2018, Forbes magazine named Verisk to its World's Best Employers list. For more information, please visit www.verisk.com.
Contact:
Erin Bzymek
MWWPR (for Verisk)
201-507-9500
ebzymek@mww.com