Global professional services company Towers Watson has introduced new predictive modeling software designed to help carriers and non-insurers assess terrorism risk.

The company unveiled its Sunstone product during a launch event at the RIMS 2013 Annual Conference in Los Angeles.

Towers Watson says the product reflects “nuances in the changing face of terrorism and political violence threats.”

Sunstone, named after an instrument to locate the sun in an overcast sky, was conceived to bring clarity and transparency to the challenging arena of terrorism analytics.

Events of all scales and types are analyzed, along with potential impacts generated on an organization’s employee well-being and financial health.

The consideration of comparatively small attacks, as well as macro events, allows businesses to gain a more precise understanding of their short- and medium-term exposure volatility, as well as the potential for longer term losses.

Insurers that underwrite terrorism cover are expected to be the prime users of such models, but Towers Watson believes the analyses could be applied equally to a range of exposures to meet the needs of the full range of businesses. These include property portfolios, risks to employees, workers compensation, and treaty or facultative reinsurance.

Towers Watson says the tool allows users to model assessments such as probable maximum loss, specific event loss, exposure concentrations and marginal impacts.

Sunstone can predict a broad range of attack types, enabling a better reflection of potential exposures to events in developing countries that might be situated anywhere on the terrorism and political violence spectrum, the company said in a media statement..

Sunstone allows users to adjust threat-weighting inputs according to the sensitivity of specific types of attack, the geographic balance of a company’s operations and its broader risk appetite. Cost-severity factors can also be varied for analyses of life and workers compensation portfolios.

Users will be able to access the Sunstone product either as a consultancy service or by licensing the software.

Source: Towers Watson