What’s New: In Brief (September 18, 2007)

Dalhousie University in Halifax was home to a sea of nervous faces at the RIMS Canada conference Sept. 18, as students tested their skills playing Risk, a classic game of strategy, for their chance to win a $5,000 bursary from Aon Reed Stenhouse (Aon). As the clock ticked down, six players had avoided elimination and were battling it out for the top spot. Ultimately, Commerce student Kyle Moore emerged as the winner. “I was literally walking by and decided to take part at the last minute,” said Moore. I called my parents after I won, and they were pretty confused at first, but really happy for me when I finally explained what had happened.Moore says the $5,000 will go a long way to paying off his student debt. He confessed he had never heard of Aon before the Risk event that AON sponsored at the RIMS Canada Conference in Halifax. All the same, Moore said hes pretty thrilled Aon chose to give back to the community like this.Moore even said he would now consider a career in the risk management field.David MacDonald took second place, winning $2,500. Blair Salter walked away with the $500 prize for third place.Aon says in a press release that it hosted the event in part to give back to a community in which they live and work. The company also wanted to connect with students who might not otherwise have considered a career in the field of risk management. It was a great platform to get in front of future leaders in our industry, and offer up the best of what Aon can do for them as an innovative employer with boundless opportunities. said Noula Kondovski, vice president, national talent and regional human resources manager for Aon.

EQECAT, Inc., a subsidiary of ABSG Consulting Inc., has announced the availability of Release 3.10 of EQECAT catastrophe management software, which includes its next generation model for Atlantic basin hurricanes.The storms of 2005 identified the critical need for insurers and reinsurers to adequately assess their exposure to losses from the combined effect of wind and flood, said Bob Healy, senior vice president of EQECAT. EQECAT is the first modeler to offer optional detailed modeling of storm surge risk along the United States mainland, including the incremental potential flood damage due to rainfall from hurricanes.Based on the fact that most of the insurance claims from 2005 have been settled, EQECAT incorporated the data from the 2005 Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma into its model.Based upon the available claims data and other research, EQECAT has determined that Gulf Coast building damage from hurricanes Rita and Katrina was more than previously anticipated due mainly to greater structure vulnerability, delay in repairing damaged structures and increased damage resulting from falling trees and flying debris from this heavy vegetation, Healy said in a press release. Our vulnerability functions in the Gulf Coast region have been updated to include these new findings.Also, the demand surge component of the EQECAT model has been updated based on the findings from a review of economic data and insurance claims from 2004 and 2005. While there may be an increase in claims for extreme events such as Katrina, there is a much lower impact on average annual loss (AAL), EQECAT notes. This is exactly what one would expect, since demand surge is driven by extreme events and AAL is driven by the more frequent, smaller events.As a result, analysts should not expect a large increase in AAL due to changes in demand surge, except perhaps in a few highly exposed areas such as New Orleans, Mr. Healy said.