Verisk has launched a new catastrophe model to help quantify the financial impacts of strikes, riots and civil commotion (SRCC) in the US. 

The model helps underwriters and risk managers assess SRCC risks across the country. 

The model includes a 500,000-year stochastic event catalogue to capture both the frequency and severity of unrest-related losses at the ZIP Code level, the company claims.   

The model estimates event severity by evaluating socio-economic trends, political conditions and historical protest activity. 

It helps exposure and catastrophe teams by reducing reliance on historical data and subjective methods, the company said in a statement.  

According to Verisk, the model combines nearly 40 years of catastrophe modelling from its Extreme Event Solutions unit and more than 15 years of political violence risk expertise from its global risks arm, Verisk Maplecroft. 

Insurers can use the model to estimate SRCC losses and assess financial impact at local and enterprise levels. 

The tool also supports the development of underwriting guidelines and enables stress testing through “plausible” extreme event scenarios. 

The SRCC model is accessible via Verisk’s Touchstone platform, part of its Extreme Events Solutions offering. 

Verisk London Extreme Event Solutions team managing director Shane Latchman said: “Verisk’s goal is to empower insurers covering political violence and terrorism risks to enhance their underwriting strategies through insights on the riskiness of exposures.  

“This will facilitate informed decisions on insurance pricing, capital allocation, risk management and mitigation. Ultimately, this SRCC Model enables underwriters to balance risk and premium effectively and allow insurers to effectively model this risk.” 

Last month, Verisk acquired Simplitium, a Nasdaq subsidiary.  

Simplitium operates Nasdaq Risk Modelling for Catastrophes, a software-as-a-service platform that supports an open ecosystem for specialised model partners to offer models, hazard data and analytics.