Moody's logo
Americas: +1-212-553-1653 Japan: +81-3-5408-4100 Asia Pacific: +852-3551-3077 EMEA: +44-20-7772-5454
Contact

Catastrophe modelers

Uncertainty is constant and catastrophe is unpredictable. As natural catastrophes grow in intensity and frequency, understanding and quantifying their potential impact — especially the tail risks and influence on earnings — has never been more crucial.

The insurance solutions team at Moody's is dedicated to delivering industry-leading catastrophe modeling that combines cutting-edge analytics, technology, and science. Discover what sets us apart.

Get in touch

Introduction to high-definition modeling

By harnessing an advanced temporal simulation framework and powerful, native, cloud-based computing, high-definition models deliver a more realistic representation of loss with deep insights into uncertainty, revolutionizing risk management practices and business decision-making.​

Learn more
Testimonial

Having current version models and an older version model side by side without having to change an installation location really helps with productivity and really helps streamline the entire process of communicating change management to our customers.

— Dan Zitelli
Senior Vice President and Co-Head of Catastrophe Modeling
Watch video

Featured solutions or products

01 Catastrophe models

Catastrophe models

Moody's RMS™ award-winning models cover natural risks including earthquakes, hurricanes, windstorms, flooding, wildfires, and climate change in addition to emerging risks like cyberattacks, terrorism, pandemics, and more.

More on catastrophe models
02 Enriched datasets

Enriched datasets

Moody’s enriched datasets allow organizations to enhance the quality of their catastrophe modeling insights by providing high-quality exposure data and extensive analytics across all lines of business. Leveraging Moody’s deep property expertise, these datasets seamlessly integrate into our risk applications, improving risk insights for more than 112.5 million commercial locations.

03 Analytical services

Analytical services

With a team of more than 350 analysts on board, the insurance solutions team at Moody's delivers high-quality analytical intelligence across all aspects of catastrophe modeling and risk management. They leverage up-to-date data and models, along with robust, automated, and scalable processes and deep industry expertise to provide top-tier analytical insights.

Types of modeling

01 High definition modeling

High definition modeling

High-definition modeling combines a simulation timeline of the hazard with ground-up simulation, sampling losses at every impacted location for each event. High-definition models can define the damaging features of the event in high resolution (up to a 1-meter grid) as well as any site conditions that could influence the impact of the event, which is crucial for high hazard gradient perils such as floods and wildfires.

02 Detailed loss modeling

Detailed loss modeling

Detailed loss modeling is an event-based modeling approach that quantifies a suite of potential events and their associated annual rates of occurrence. The uncertainty in severity is represented parametrically through distributions that provide a range of losses for each modeled event.

03 Aggregate loss modeling

Aggregate loss modeling

Aggregate loss modeling is a framework used for calculating financial loss statistics. Unlike detailed loss modeling or high-definition modeling, aggregate loss models are designed to handle situations where exposure information is not available on a location-by-location level. Instead, it uses aggregate exposure data to calculate potential losses.

04 Climate change catastrophe modeling

Climate change catastrophe modeling

Moody’s RMS extends its comprehensive catastrophe modeling to address climate change, helping (re)insurers and brokers understand the perils most affected by it. These models, calibrated for future risks under climate change scenarios, offer new event rates projected through 2100 and are available for selected countries and climate-related perils.

05 Specialty modeling

Specialty modeling

We offer a range of specialty models to complement its natural catastrophe modeling solutions. These include the Moody's RMS Builder's Risk Model, which evaluates risk throughout the construction life cycle for various buildings and structures. The Moody's RMS Industrial Facilities Model, an advanced vulnerability module, integrates with Moody's RMS earthquake, flood, and windstorm models to assess risks specific to industrial facilities. Additionally, the Moody's RMS Marine Cargo Model addresses cargo and specie risk at ports and inland storage facilities.

06 Cyber modeling

Cyber modeling

We designed Moody's RMS cyber models to cover the entire range of attritional and catastrophic cyber risks across an array of information technology and operational technology scenarios. These fully parameterized models account for both the frequency and severity of events by interpreting the underlying "physics" of cyberspace. 

Capabilities

third-party modeling
Third-party modeling

Moody’s Intelligent Risk Platform™ Open Modeling Engine unifies management and execution of over 700 Moody’s RMS™, third-party, and in-house models natively connecting to the Nasdaq Risk Modeling for Catastrophes environment. 

Learn more
open api
Open APIs and microservices technology architecture

Catastrophe modelers can build highly flexible, scalable, and resilient risk workflows using Moody’s Intelligent Risk Platform’s cloud-native data and applications architecture. By digitizing key steps in the catastrophe modeling workflow, organizations can reduce the amount of time spent operating models by over 75%.

Learn more
data onboarding
Data onboarding and transformation services

Moody’s Intelligent Risk Platform simplifies the complexity of exposure data schema mappings by allowing modeling teams to import and transform the Oasis Open Exposure Data schema, in addition to Verisk’s/AIR’s Catastrophe Exposure Database Exchange schema, directly into exposure data modules.

Learn more
cloud infrastructure
Robust cloud-native infrastructure

We built Moody’s catastrophe modeling solutions to match the high usage periods in the insurance calendar, such as renewals. Catastrophe modelers can experience modeling speeds up to 10 times faster in Risk Modeler than in equivalent on-premises modeling environments. 

Get in touch

Case studies

View all case studies
case study
Accelerating innovation in catastrophe risk management

Howden, a global insurance group, partnered with Moody's RMS to integrate the cloud-based Intelligent Risk Platform™ into its HX Analytics division, enhancing catastrophe modeling and risk management. This collaboration streamlined HX's data environment, automating workflows and providing scalable, flexible risk insights for customers while reducing operational costs and supporting long-term business growth.

Learn more
case study
Evaluating the performance of UK flood defenses under climate change

Moody's, in partnership with Flood Re, conducted a study examining the impact of climate change on flood defenses in York and Pontypridd and found that while increasing flood defense standards can help mitigate future losses, significant investments are needed. The results highlight the importance of adapting flood infrastructure alongside other resilience measures as the UK transitions to risk-reflective flood insurance pricing after the Flood Re scheme ends.

Learn more
case study
Creating a more resilient earthquake insurance marketplace in California

The California Earthquake Authority partnered with Moody’s to analyze the effectiveness of its Earthquake Brace + Bolt Program, which provides grants to homeowners for seismic retrofits. The study demonstrated that retrofitting homes can significantly reduce earthquake damage with loss reductions as high as 70%, supporting the case for offering insurance credits to boost adoption and reduce California's earthquake protection gap.

Learn more
case study
An analytics-led approach to cyber intelligence

Gallagher Re is leveraging an analytics-driven approach to model and manage catastrophic cyber risks, helping customers better assess and price cyber (re)insurance hazards. Our partnership focuses on improving tail risk quantification to support the cyber insurance market’s growth and sustainability.

Learn more

News and views

research

Mar 21, 2025

 Moody's
2024 Catastrophe review report

Moody's RMS Event Response has recently published its comprehensive 2024 Catastrophe Review report recapping the biggest events of 2024.

Read more
infographic
Moody's
Model change management

Catastrophe modelers can accelerate model change management with fewer resources, less effort, and at a lower cost with Risk Modeler.

Learn more
ebook
Moody’s
Catastrophe risk modeling software buyer’s guide

The Moody’s risk modeling application buyer’s guide will help you ask the tough questions about modeling capabilities, business integration tools, and risk fundamentals so your business can outperform.

Read more
whitepaper
Moody's
Mastering earnings risk: a study on Europe climate portfolio management

Moody’s comprehensive modeling solutions capture risk correlations across primary and secondary perils.

Read more
whitepaper
Moody's
2023 catastrophe review report

Against a backdrop of escalating natural disasters and increasingly interconnected risks, the 2023 catastrophe review report reveals a year marked by the rise of secondary perils.

Read more

GET IN TOUCH

Speak to our team

Interested in learning more about our offerings? Our solutions specialists are ready to help.