Open source catastrophe modelling platform Oasis Loss Modelling Framework (Oasis) is pleased to announce significant further investment and support from ten leading re/insurance companies that will increase the choice, efficiency and quality of risk models available, and enable open source risk modelling to be adopted as standard across public and private sectors.
The supporting international re/insurers and brokers have committed additional funds and resources in excess of US$2 million over two years that will enable Oasis to further maintain and grow the vibrant community of providers and users of their software, models, data, and tools. The companies collaborating to back and further develop Oasis are:
Aon, Allianz, AXA, Chubb, Guy Carpenter, Hannover Re, RenaissanceRe, Swiss Re, SCOR and Willis Re.
The industry led public-private partnership, the Insurance Development Forum (IDF) is also providing funding and is ensuring that public sector use cases are included in project design, as part of its programme to accelerate finance-aware risk insight in developing markets. Supported by this broad, diverse and active community, this exciting commitment will deliver greater choice of models and a range of standards curated on behalf of the re/insurance community. This directly aligns with other ongoing initiatives such as Helix and CMOS (Catastrophe Modelling Operating Standards) under the banner of The Institutes with a focus on the US market related to the adoption and use of open exposure data standards, resiliency from natural catastrophes and improved application of science, data and technology.
By backing Oasis, the re/insurance industry is promoting open source risk modelling as the means to remove barriers to access, not only for companies but for wider sectors including governments, city offices, academia and research institutions. The benefit will be reduced costs, increased transparency and accessibility of catastrophe models and, most importantly, creating more choice for all.
Oasis CEO Dickie Whitaker said:
“The global approach to risk modelling is changing. The support we are announcing from the industry today signals a shift away from non-standardised data, high costs and ‘closed box’ approach, to a future shaped by powerful tools that offer a more transparent, robust and comprehensive approach for analysing, understanding and pricing risks from extreme natural catastrophe events, including the impacts of climate change.
This renewed industry support will see Oasis develop the fastest, most feature rich, performant and reliable catastrophe modelling platform available – and not just for first world economies, our open-source software has been designed for developing countries as well. It is truly game-changing.
It is hugely significant to this mission to have the continued backing of ten leading re/insurance businesses and the IDF, that recognise the need for true innovation in catastrophe loss modelling, and we are extremely grateful for the support we are announcing today, and for the scope it provides us to continue on our mission.
Oasis is at an inflection point in its eight-year journey. Whilst significant progress has been made, we are approaching a critical mass and now, with the backing of some of the world’s largest re/insurers and brokers, we will benefit hugely from their commitment to further investment and in-kind support.
This announcement is also a call to action to encourage others in the industry to join the wave of support we are delighted to be attracting, and to make Oasis open-source risk modelling software the standard, so that we all can benefit from the potential for deeper risk understanding this offers.”
Quotes from supporting companies behind the Oasis initiative:
Aon
Open catastrophe modelling ecosystems are critical as Aon continues to work with clients to develop a bespoke view of catastrophe risk. This enables insurers to gain greater confidence in their understanding of data assumptions and loss drivers while enhancing their ability to manage their unique portfolios and effectively transfer risk. By backing Oasis in collaboration with Impact Forecasting’s catastrophe models, we are excited to bring more choice to insurers – coupled with transparency and customisation – to help them better quantify natural catastrophe risk in an efficient way.
Helen Attenborough, Executive Managing Director for Analytics Software & Product Development at Reinsurance Solutions, Aon
Allianz
Oasis fills and important gap in the cat risk management community. It makes the software and with that the ‘language’ we use in cat risk management available to the open source community. This has the effect that talented cat model developers of any kind – be it long-established ones but also those just getting started – receive access to insurance and reinsurance market participants in a streamlined fashion.
This is a win-win situation: model developers can focus on what they are good at: insight into catastrophe events world-wide. At the same time, they are relieved from the burden to develop and maintain a software that fits the needs of insurance and reinsurance and broker companies and the latter get access to a wide(r) range of models. This makes it financially viable for model developers to also focus on geographical areas or perils that would normally not be in scope for them.
Allianz is a strong supporter of Oasis and believes in the success of standardization where this makes sense: data, cat frameworks and financial modelling. This will lead to a healthy mix of views to risk and with that to a sound cat risk management framework. Allianz has invested over the past years heavily in own tools and frameworks to make cat risk modelling independent of vendors highly automated and integrated in core insurance systems. A strong Oasis backbone will make this step even stronger, this is why we support this initiative.
Dr Sibylle Steimen, MD Advisory & Services, Allianz SE
AXA
Promoting open and global modelling solutions is part of AXA’s ambition to address protection gaps and increase populations resilience over the world. AXA has been an early supporter of the Oasis platform, which we have used to develop internal modeling capabilities. By reinforcing our support to this project, we hope to further contribute to the development of open-source risk models, particularly for poorly documented risks and in emerging markets where modeling resources are scarce. The transparency and scalability of Oasis models are key assets in improving our industry’s Cat modelling capabilities, for the benefit of all.
Renaud Guidée, AXA Group Chief Risk Officer
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