Calculating Climate Risks More Accurately: SAS and Swiss Re Join Forces
Floods, hail, wildfires—SAS and Swiss Re are now helping insurers with a joint offering to more accurately assess and manage secondary risks caused by climate change.
(Photo: SAS)
By far the largest share of insured losses from natural disasters in recent years has been attributable to so-called secondary hazards—that is, events such as floods, hail, or wildfires. In the U.S., these accounted for over 99 percent in 2025, according to data from the Swiss Re Institute. Insurers who assess their portfolios based solely on historical loss data are working with an incomplete picture.
This is where the new partnership between SAS, a leading global provider of data and AI solutions, and Swiss Re, one of the world’s largest reinsurance groups, comes in. As part of the SAS Strategic Technology Partner Program, Swiss Re is integrating its CatNet catastrophe risk data with the SAS Insurance Life Cycle Accelerator. The two companies are thus integrating up-to-date risk information directly into insurers' daily workflows.
Less effort, better decisions
This enables insurers to make faster and more informed decisions regarding risk assessment and pricing—without any additional manual effort. High-resolution CatNet data is integrated directly into existing SAS workflows via API. Machine learning models process up-to-date hazard information in real time and support automated pricing, rating, and underwriting.
This allows underwriting teams to review 40 percent more risks with the same number of staff—thereby increasing both volume and profitability. The risk modeling process, for example, becomes 50 percent faster.
«Insurers can no longer rely solely on historical claims data,» says Stu Bradley, Senior Vice President of Risk, Fraud, and Compliance Solutions at SAS. „The combination of AI and actuarial modeling with Swiss Re’s intelligent analysis of catastrophe losses enables faster, more transparent, and more reliable decisions.»
Identify risks in your portfolio before they become a problem
In addition to operational efficiency, insurers benefit from significantly improved portfolio management. Concentration risks can be analyzed in a targeted manner, and scenarios can be simulated across regions and risk types. Explainable AI replaces fragmented spreadsheets and ensures full traceability—from exposure data to final pricing.
«Insurers need to be able to assess risk trends in portfolios and regions in near real time,» says Ali Shahkarami, Head of Risk Data Solutions Insurance at Swiss Re. «Together, Swiss Re and SAS make it possible to integrate catastrophe intelligence directly into actuarial decision-making processes—for more sustainable portfolios and fewer gaps in insurance coverage.»
Source: SAS
This article originally appeared on m-q.ch - https://www.m-q.ch/de/klimarisiken-praeziser-kalkulieren-sas-und-swiss-re-buendeln-ihre-kraefte/
