Willis Towers Watson (WTW) has expanded its partnership with the Karlsruhe Institute of Know-how (KIT) in a collaboration with NASA’s Disasters Program and the NASA Langley Analysis Centre.
The collaboration goals to enhance the understanding of hailstorm dangers throughout Europe, specializing in their spatial and temporal distribution.
Constructing on greater than a decade of analysis, the brand new part of the partnership will deal with the challenges posed by hailstorms, notably in gentle of local weather change.
Hailstorms stay one of the pricey extreme climate dangers in Europe, with growing insured losses lately.
The partnership builds upon the unique Willis European hail mannequin launched in 2014, which was the “first stochastic hail mannequin” to cowl all of Europe.
This mannequin has been adopted by insurers and reinsurers for hail threat estimation and pricing.
On this newest part, the mannequin might be up to date with improved information from NASA’s satellites, which monitor extreme storms and hailstorms.
The collaboration may also introduce a brand new mannequin set-up for hail hazard evaluation.
Researchers concerned within the challenge will examine how local weather components have an effect on hailstorm traits equivalent to hailstone measurement, frequency and harm potential.
WTW climate & local weather dangers analysis lead Daniel Bannister mentioned: “Our continued collaboration with KIT and NASA ensures we stay on the forefront of scientific analysis, enabling us to offer reinsurers with the insights they want to reply to this complicated peril.”
WTW reported internet earnings of $1.25bn (£966.86bn) for the fourth quarter of 2024, a rise from $623m in the identical quarter of the earlier yr.
Nonetheless, for the complete yr of 2024, the corporate registered a internet lack of $88m, in contrast with a internet earnings of $1.1bn in 2023.
This loss consists of greater than $1bn in impairment fees associated to the sale of its unit TRANZACT.
