Share

GEM is pleased to announce its partnerships with Nasdaq and AIR Worldwide, which are expected to pave the way for GEM Foundation’s seismic hazard and risk models to become available via the Nasdaq Risk Modelling for Catastrophes and AIR Touchstone platforms. GEM’s OpenQuake models will be rendered into their respective OASIS LMF format, an open-source format developed by OASIS LMF, and Touchstone format using AIR’s Model Builder. The resulting models will support financial risk analysis including (re)insurance portfolios. Nasdaq and AIR will act as non-exclusive distributors of GEM models to their customers.

This is the first time GEM, a non-profit Foundation specializing in seismic hazard and risk assessment, will partner with external risk model platform providers to market and demonstrate models for end user evaluation and distribute licenses for the purpose of modelling catastrophe risk. However, all models will be freely available in OQ for non-commercial, public-good use, and revenue from these partnerships will be used to maintain models and support activities in developing countries.

GEM Secretary General, John Schneider, explains GEM’s role in the private and public sector with the signing of its respective agreements with Nasdaq and AIR and emphasizes the Foundation’s interest in diversifying its approach to make the latest risk information as accessible as possible to a broad range of stakeholders.

“Fundamental to GEM’s success is the maintenance of the public-private partnership which is at the core of the Foundation’s governance and operational model. Making GEM models available via Nasdaq and AIR platforms can broaden our stakeholder reach and diversify how GEM models can be accessed. We are optimistic that this move will usher in a new chapter in GEM’s pursuit to reduce earthquake risk worldwide.”

Nasdaq Risk Modelling for Catastrophes - powered by - enables insurers, reinsurers, brokers and corporates to unlock access to a broad range of catastrophe risk models from multiple vendors through a single service, increasing ease of model accessibility and strengthening risk management programs.

Matthew Jones, Head of Catastrophe Risk Product at Nasdaq, said “This agreement means that we can now start providing GEM’s risk models on our service, filling essential gaps in the ability to assess earthquake risk globally. The industry wants choice and GEM is the 10th model developer to join the Nasdaq catastrophe risk modelling community, offering firms the strategic benefits of utilizing industry standards and Software as a Service, including ease of access to a wide choice of models and cost efficiency.”

AIR Worldwide is a risk modeling and data analytics company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with customers in insurance, reinsurance, financial services, and government markets. AIR’s Touchstone platform enables real-time decision-making that helps companies to make more informed underwriting, pricing, and risk management decisions; compare different views of risk; investigate the sensitivity of model assumptions; and satisfy regulatory reporting requirements.

Jay Guin, Executive Vice President of AIR and Chief Research Officer, says, “This is a milestone for GEM. AIR has been a long-time sponsor of GEM and we are happy to be part of this new journey through AIR’s Touchstone platform. Model Builder enables clients to access additional views of risk while leveraging Touchstone’s financial module, scalability and performance capabilities. We will continue to support GEM’s efforts to promote openly available and accessible risk information.”

Click the linked texts for more on and.