Hannover Re in quake model

Hannover Re will pay €1m to fund the open-source Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation that will provide information on seismic hazard, seismic risk and the socio-economic impacts of earthquakes.

Rui Pinho, secretary general of GEM Foundation, declared: "All GEM actors involved have a common mission: to improve earthquake risk modelling and assessment significantly and provide both basic and expert users worldwide with access to state-of-the art tools and software, contributing also to risk mitigation and reduction.

“We are very pleased that Hannover Re has taken the decision of joining this initiative, contributing and adding impetus to the ongoing endeavour, which aims at the release of a first version of the open-source global seismic risk model by 2013."

Reliable assessment

Ulrich Wallin, CEO of Hannover Re said: "As a reinsurer we are keenly interested in the most reliable possible assessment of natural catastrophe risks. Through our partnership with the Global Earthquake Model Foundation we are seeking to help facilitate better assessment of the risks posed by earthquakes.

“The output produced by GEM could deliver valuable insights for our own risk assessment and hence enable us to further refine our risk management and our underwriting of risks exposed to earthquakes."

Initiated by the OECD, GEM started its operations in 2009 with the goal of constructing a global model for earthquake risks that is freely accessible worldwide.