Acuance Limited Utilizes AIR's Modeling to Manage Catastrophe Bond Risk

January 1, 2011 / 4 min read

BOSTON, Aug. 13 2007 — AIR Worldwide Corporation (AIR) today announced that Acuance Limited, a member of the Credit Suisse group, has licensed CATRADER®, the industry standard platform for catastrophe reinsurance and insurance-linked securities, and ALERTTM, AIR’s online real-time loss estimation service, to better assess and manage the risks associated with its portfolio of catastrophe bond investments.

“AIR’s CATRADER is the only true option for quickly and accurately modeling the risk associated with insurance-linked securities,” said Niklaus Hilti, Head of Insurance-Linked Strategies at Acuance Limited. “We selected CATRADER because the catastrophe models that underlie the software enable us to generate loss estimates for a wide range of our investments and allow us to efficiently model and simulate our investment portfolios.”

AIR catastrophe models simulate the physical characteristics of natural and man-made hazards and project their effects on property, including residential, commercial and industrial facilities. Financial institutions use CATRADER to determine potential loss distributions for individual catastrophe bonds and their entire portfolio, as well as to quantify the correlation between bonds.

“AIR offers a wide range of highly sophisticated, scientifically-based models,” continued Mr. Hilti. “We’ve been particularly impressed with AIR’s European windstorm model. It is easy to become too focused on hurricane and earthquake risk and underestimate the loss potential from storms like Kyrill, which caused large losses in Europe in January.”

“As the market for catastrophe bonds has matured, investors have become much more sophisticated,” said Yörn Tatge, Managing Director of AIR Worldwide, GmbH in Munich, Germany. “CATRADER is the system of choice for hedge funds and other financial institutions to evaluate the risk associated with catastrophe-related financial instruments.”

In conjunction with CATRADER, Acuance will also be using AIR’s ALERTTM , a value-added service that provides reliable catastrophe loss information in real time. “ALERT will play an important role in our ‘live cat’ decisions, when actual events are unfolding,” said Mr. Hilti.

AIR is the leading provider of catastrophe risk modeling and analytical services for insurance-linked securities. Since modeling the first large-scale catastrophe bond 1997, AIR has participated in many of the insurance industry's landmark securitization transactions. This year AIR has provided modeling support for more than 3 billion dollars in insurance-linked securities, or nearly 70% of 2007 new issuances, to date.

About AIR Worldwide Corporation
AIR Worldwide Corporation (AIR) is the fastest growing risk modeling company helping clients manage the financial impact of catastrophes and weather. Utilizing the latest science and technology, AIR models natural catastrophes in more than 50 countries and the risk from terrorism in the United States. Other areas of expertise include site-specific seismic engineering analysis, catastrophe bonds, and property replacement cost valuation. An ISO business, AIR was founded in 1987 to provide its insurance, reinsurance, corporate, and government clients a complete line of risk modeling software and consulting services that produce consistent and reliable results. Headquartered in Boston, AIR has additional offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.air-worldwide.com.

About Credit Suisse
As one of the world's leading banks, Credit Suisse provides its clients with investment banking, private banking and asset management services worldwide. Credit Suisse offers advisory services, comprehensive solutions and innovative products to companies, institutional clients and high-net-worth private clients globally, as well as retail clients in Switzerland. Credit Suisse is active in over 50 countries and employs approximately 45,000 people. Credit Suisse's parent company, Credit Suisse Group, is a leading global financial services company headquartered in Zurich. Credit Suisse Group's registered shares (CSGN) are listed in Switzerland and, in the form of American Depositary Shares (CS), in New York. Further information about Credit Suisse can be found at www.credit-suisse.com.

In its asset management business, Credit Suisse offers products across the full spectrum of investment classes, ranging from equities, fixed income and multiple-asset class products, to alternative investments such as real estate, hedge funds, private equity and volatility management. Credit Suisse’s asset management business manages portfolios, mutual funds, and other investment vehicles for a broad spectrum of clients ranging from governments, institutions and corporations to private individuals. With offices focused on asset management in 18 countries, Credit Suisse’s asset management business is operated as a globally integrated network to deliver the bank’s best investment ideas and capabilities to clients around the world. The asset management business of Credit Suisse is comprised of a number of legal entities around the world that are subject to distinct regulatory requirements; certain asset management products and services may not be available in all jurisdictions or to all client types.

Release: Immediate

Contacts:
Giuseppe Barone / Erica Helton
MWW Group (for ISO)
201-507-9500
gbarone@mww.com / ehelton@mww.com

Kevin Long (AIR)
617-267-6645
klong@air-worldwide.com