Verisk Launches WaterLine, Significantly Enhances Solutions for Private Flood Insurance Market

JERSEY CITY, New Jersey, Oct. 18 -- Verisk, a data analytics provider, issued the following news release:

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"For decades, outdated regional flood maps and a lack of detailed risk information have discouraged many property insurers from taking on flood exposure," said Marc Treacy, managing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.