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Casualty and financial lines underwriting

The increasing complexity of risks — coupled with the demand for faster, more accurate casualty underwriting decisions — puts immense pressure on traditional processes and technology. As a result, insurers face inefficient workflows, fragmented data sources, and time-consuming manual tasks that hinder their ability to accurately assess, price, and manage risks. 

Moody's cutting-edge name matching and data enrichment streamlines your underwriting process, supporting high-value analysis and decision-making. Leveraging our comprehensive data, advanced analytics, and deep insurance industry expertise helps you to decode complex risks and uncover opportunities with greater speed and precision. 

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How can we help?

Our solutions integrate seamlessly into your workflows, significantly reducing manual data entry and processing time, which allows casualty underwriters to focus on complex risk decisions. Backed by our extensive expertise in insurance and data management, we provide insights and best practices for a deeper understanding of diverse entities in underwriting.  

01
Access advanced name matching and enrichment

Address data integrity challenges using our proprietary algorithms to automatically match your pre- bind accounts against a validated Moody's corporate data record covering more than 525 million companies. Moody’s name matching unlocks the depth and breadth of our data with over 2,500 relevant enrichment datapoints to support more confident underwriting decisions.

02
Gain unmatched insights into private entities

With up to 85% of a casualty and financial lines insurer's portfolio often involving underwriting for private firms, obtaining detailed information is crucial yet challenging. Moody's comprehensive coverage of private entities helps underwriters to overcome data gaps and reduce the uncertainty of underwriting casualty risk.  

03
Leverage state-of-the-art analytical tools for emerging risk

Stay ahead of evolving threats with our innovative analytical tools. From cyber and credit vulnerabilities to climate risks and litigation trends, our solutions provide insights that help you anticipate and accurately price emerging risks before they impact your portfolio.

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Speak to our team today

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​​​Praedicat acquisition​

Moody’s boosts investment in casualty risk assessment

Moody's has acquired Praedicat—a leader in liability modeling—marking a significant leap forward in casualty risk analytics.

What this means for our customers​​

Customers of both Moody's and Praedicat will have access to enhanced analytical capabilities and a broader range of casualty risk solutions, designed to navigate market complexities and challenges more effectively.

With this venture, we aim to redefine the possibilities for the casualty industry and continue to transform integrated risk assessment.

A message from Michael Steel and Colin Holmes
Press release
FAQs

Delivering solutions for the most pressing issues facing the industry

Social inflation, the rise of litigation finance, and the risk of climate liability are creating significant dislocation in casualty insurance. Our modeling and risk assessment solutions offer insurers the potential for greater predictability and profitability.

Unprecedented precision in casualty risk assessment

By combining Praedicat’s liability modeling expertise with Moody’s extensive company data and comprehensive risk insights, we are enhancing our ability to provide robust science-based risk assessments. This integration will help customers gather superior insights and offer access to powerful predictive analytics tools.

A shared commitment to innovation

This acquisition highlights our dedication to innovation and excellence in supporting the casualty insurance industry. By leveraging the strengths of both Moody's and Praedicat, we aim to bring cutting edge technology, data, and analytics to deliver comprehensive risk solutions for the casualty industry.

Moody’s by the numbers

Moody’s has the most powerful, comparable global reference data resource on private and listed entities for casualty and financial lines insurers. 

525 million entities

528 million entities

466 million companies with Moody's probability of default scores

466 million companies with Moody's probability of default scores

502 million people records

502 million people records

2500 enrichment attributes

2500 enrichment attributes

141 million sole proprietorships

141 million sole proprietorships

Data on board of directors for over 89 million entities

Data on board of directors for over 89 million entities

428 million private entities, including 48 million with detailed financials

428 million private entities, including 48 million with detailed financials

325 million companies covered by firmographic cyber models

325 million companies covered by firmographic cyber models

Over 9 million lawsuits avaliable in our repository

Over 9 million lawsuits avaliable in our repository

1 million daily news stories, combined with sentiment analysis

1 million daily news stories, combined with sentiment analysis

6.6 million companies with detailed technographic cyber models

6.6 million companies with detailed technographic cyber models

162 million companies with operating revenues, employees, assets

162 million companies with operating revenues, employees, assets

As of July 2024

Capabilities

01 Core firmographics

Core firmographics  

Firmographics are essential for underwriters to accurately assess risk, set premiums, and anticipate potential claims, but accessing reliable, up-to-date data can be challenging.   

Our comprehensive firmographic data on 525 million public and private entities worldwide is instantly accessible, eliminating the need for time-consuming manual research. Insurers gain access to extensive data based on name, country, and sector, allowing for a clearer understanding of the entities they are assessing in seconds and facilitating more accurate and efficient risk evaluation.   

02 Ownership and KYC insights

Ownership and KYC insights  

Understanding a company's ownership structure and adhering to Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations are pivotal for underwriters to assess legal, financial, and reputational risks. Challenges arise from corporate structures that can obscure true ownership, evolving legal frameworks, and the necessity for ongoing monitoring to detect changes in ownership or management practices.

Our extensive ownership and KYC data helps you navigate complex corporate structures and changing regulatory landscapes with ease. By providing a clear view of ultimate beneficial owners combined with sanction, politically exposed person (PEP), and adverse media risks, we help you stay compliant and avoid impacts on your portfolio.  

Key features include: 

  • Global ultimate owners and more hierarchy linkages than any other dataset, allowing for a deeper understanding of corporate structures.

  • Comprehensive data on mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, private equity, and venture capital deals, including involved companies’ integrated financials and corporate structures.

  • Access to company reports, deal comparisons, and valuations.

  • Data on the boards of directors for over 89 million entities and more than 55 million directors to better understand management roles.

  • Risk-relevant information collated into up-to-date risk profiles for individuals and organizations, aiding in understanding reputational risks.

  • Access to data related to foreign government influence, beneficial ownership, sanctions, PEPs, and more to facilitate investigations into regulatory and compliance risks. 

03 Financial strength

Financial strength 

Assessing a company's financial strength is critical for underwriters, as it affects the company's ability to pay premiums, absorb deductibles, and manage potential losses. Moreover, in certain lines of insurance, such as trade credit or surety, credit risk indicators have become integral to the underwriting process, helping insurers evaluate the likelihood of default or financial distress and allowing for more accurate risk pricing and portfolio management. However, challenges persist, including dealing with non-standardized financials, data scarcity, and the need to integrate credit risk assessments into traditional underwriting workflows.   

Key features include:

Standardized financials

We offer updated, standardized financial data across various reporting jurisdictions, offering a consistent view on the profit and loss accounts for 49 million private and 70,771 public companies, as well as providing timely and accurate financial insights for risk assessment and pricing.

Stock market performance

Stock market data, including main shareholders and share price performance, provides valuable insights into companies’ financial stability, influencing underwriting decisions and risk pricing. Through daily stock prices and weekly updates on stock data, we keep you informed on market trends and company performance.

Credit and financial risk analysis

Our predictive modeling gives advanced insights into companies' default risk, which is crucial for underwriting policies against financial failures or executive decisions. With Moody’s probability of default scores for 466 million companies, insurers can quickly gauge public and private companies’ probability of default. Our models offer early warnings and actionable insights to mitigate financial risks, with factors including financial statement analysis, market dynamics, and trade payment behaviors. Moody’s also provides Credit Sentiment Scores, backed by extensive research and state-of-the-art artificial intelligence techniques, to isolate early risk indicators often found in the news before they are revealed in traditional data sources.

04 Corporate behavior

Corporate behavior 

Understanding corporate behavior is vital in casualty and financial lines modeling for underwriters to accurately assess risks and set premiums by incorporating factors like governance, ethics, and compliance. It helps in predicting the likelihood and impact of liabilities. However, quantifying complex and opaque corporate actions and adapting to their dynamic nature pose significant challenges, making model accuracy and adaptability difficult. 

Key features include:

Litigation risks

Gain insights into litigation risks through a comprehensive analysis of past and potential future legal challenges. Our approach empowers insurers to make more accurate risk assessments and set premiums effectively by examining trends, case specifics, and accumulations in various industries and lines of business. Access  a liability litigation database containing over 9 million lawsuits that aids in understanding historical liability accumulations, litigation analytics, and emerging risks through event reconstruction. Receive detailed breakdowns by industry and line of business, allowing for targeted analysis, as well as the capability to examine specific litigation events in depth, enhancing risk assessment precision.

News sentiment analysis

In recent years, forward-thinking insurers have begun integrating adverse media monitoring into their risk assessment workflows, allowing underwriters to quickly identify negative news or public sentiment that could indicate increased risk. By leveraging artificial intelligence-powered news analysis, insurers can now factor in real-time reputational and operational risks that traditional financial metrics might miss, leading to more comprehensive and dynamic risk profiles. 

We offer coverage of news sources from over 28,000 global publications across 84 languages, supported by a 15-year archive. A comprehensive and searchable taxonomy is designed for efficient and precise information processing, and the unique company identifier system allows for real-time news integration into existing workflows. This configurable news solution seamlessly integrates into an insurer’s proprietary applications and platforms.

Cyber risk ratings and analytics

Companies that exhibit poor cybersecurity practices could pose a higher risk of delinquency — and potentially even default on their obligations — and have a negative impact on share price, stock volatility and market share. In fact, some underwriters already use cyber scores as a proxy for governance performance.   

Access to Moody’s cyber risk offering can help you identify cyber risks and understand the potential for cyber incidents in addition to highlighting companies with strong cybersecurity performance. We help integrate cyber risk monitoring into your workflows, enabling you to continually assess your portfolio’s security health based on historical cyber risk data so you can underwrite policies with confidence. Additionally, you can identify and address exposures to evolving risks and vulnerabilities among your policyholders. Utilize risk trends, accumulations, and catastrophe risk data to help identify opportunities to mitigate losses from third- and fourth-party risks. 

Core firmographics  

Firmographics are essential for underwriters to accurately assess risk, set premiums, and anticipate potential claims, but accessing reliable, up-to-date data can be challenging.   

Our comprehensive firmographic data on 525 million public and private entities worldwide is instantly accessible, eliminating the need for time-consuming manual research. Insurers gain access to extensive data based on name, country, and sector, allowing for a clearer understanding of the entities they are assessing in seconds and facilitating more accurate and efficient risk evaluation.   

Ownership and KYC insights  

Understanding a company's ownership structure and adhering to Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations are pivotal for underwriters to assess legal, financial, and reputational risks. Challenges arise from corporate structures that can obscure true ownership, evolving legal frameworks, and the necessity for ongoing monitoring to detect changes in ownership or management practices.

Our extensive ownership and KYC data helps you navigate complex corporate structures and changing regulatory landscapes with ease. By providing a clear view of ultimate beneficial owners combined with sanction, politically exposed person (PEP), and adverse media risks, we help you stay compliant and avoid impacts on your portfolio.  

Key features include: 

  • Global ultimate owners and more hierarchy linkages than any other dataset, allowing for a deeper understanding of corporate structures.

  • Comprehensive data on mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, private equity, and venture capital deals, including involved companies’ integrated financials and corporate structures.

  • Access to company reports, deal comparisons, and valuations.

  • Data on the boards of directors for over 89 million entities and more than 55 million directors to better understand management roles.

  • Risk-relevant information collated into up-to-date risk profiles for individuals and organizations, aiding in understanding reputational risks.

  • Access to data related to foreign government influence, beneficial ownership, sanctions, PEPs, and more to facilitate investigations into regulatory and compliance risks. 

Financial strength 

Assessing a company's financial strength is critical for underwriters, as it affects the company's ability to pay premiums, absorb deductibles, and manage potential losses. Moreover, in certain lines of insurance, such as trade credit or surety, credit risk indicators have become integral to the underwriting process, helping insurers evaluate the likelihood of default or financial distress and allowing for more accurate risk pricing and portfolio management. However, challenges persist, including dealing with non-standardized financials, data scarcity, and the need to integrate credit risk assessments into traditional underwriting workflows.   

Key features include:

Standardized financials

We offer updated, standardized financial data across various reporting jurisdictions, offering a consistent view on the profit and loss accounts for 49 million private and 70,771 public companies, as well as providing timely and accurate financial insights for risk assessment and pricing.

Stock market performance

Stock market data, including main shareholders and share price performance, provides valuable insights into companies’ financial stability, influencing underwriting decisions and risk pricing. Through daily stock prices and weekly updates on stock data, we keep you informed on market trends and company performance.

Credit and financial risk analysis

Our predictive modeling gives advanced insights into companies' default risk, which is crucial for underwriting policies against financial failures or executive decisions. With Moody’s probability of default scores for 466 million companies, insurers can quickly gauge public and private companies’ probability of default. Our models offer early warnings and actionable insights to mitigate financial risks, with factors including financial statement analysis, market dynamics, and trade payment behaviors. Moody’s also provides Credit Sentiment Scores, backed by extensive research and state-of-the-art artificial intelligence techniques, to isolate early risk indicators often found in the news before they are revealed in traditional data sources.

Corporate behavior 

Understanding corporate behavior is vital in casualty and financial lines modeling for underwriters to accurately assess risks and set premiums by incorporating factors like governance, ethics, and compliance. It helps in predicting the likelihood and impact of liabilities. However, quantifying complex and opaque corporate actions and adapting to their dynamic nature pose significant challenges, making model accuracy and adaptability difficult. 

Key features include:

Litigation risks

Gain insights into litigation risks through a comprehensive analysis of past and potential future legal challenges. Our approach empowers insurers to make more accurate risk assessments and set premiums effectively by examining trends, case specifics, and accumulations in various industries and lines of business. Access  a liability litigation database containing over 9 million lawsuits that aids in understanding historical liability accumulations, litigation analytics, and emerging risks through event reconstruction. Receive detailed breakdowns by industry and line of business, allowing for targeted analysis, as well as the capability to examine specific litigation events in depth, enhancing risk assessment precision.

News sentiment analysis

In recent years, forward-thinking insurers have begun integrating adverse media monitoring into their risk assessment workflows, allowing underwriters to quickly identify negative news or public sentiment that could indicate increased risk. By leveraging artificial intelligence-powered news analysis, insurers can now factor in real-time reputational and operational risks that traditional financial metrics might miss, leading to more comprehensive and dynamic risk profiles. 

We offer coverage of news sources from over 28,000 global publications across 84 languages, supported by a 15-year archive. A comprehensive and searchable taxonomy is designed for efficient and precise information processing, and the unique company identifier system allows for real-time news integration into existing workflows. This configurable news solution seamlessly integrates into an insurer’s proprietary applications and platforms.

Cyber risk ratings and analytics

Companies that exhibit poor cybersecurity practices could pose a higher risk of delinquency — and potentially even default on their obligations — and have a negative impact on share price, stock volatility and market share. In fact, some underwriters already use cyber scores as a proxy for governance performance.   

Access to Moody’s cyber risk offering can help you identify cyber risks and understand the potential for cyber incidents in addition to highlighting companies with strong cybersecurity performance. We help integrate cyber risk monitoring into your workflows, enabling you to continually assess your portfolio’s security health based on historical cyber risk data so you can underwrite policies with confidence. Additionally, you can identify and address exposures to evolving risks and vulnerabilities among your policyholders. Utilize risk trends, accumulations, and catastrophe risk data to help identify opportunities to mitigate losses from third- and fourth-party risks. 

More on private entities 

We offer a robust database that includes information on over 76 million board directors of private companies and detailed financial records for 49 million private companies. Even with basic company information, we can calculate a private company's likelihood of default using our benchmarking database. 

Our private firm default and recovery model, developed with Moody's exclusive dataset of global private defaults, provides exceptional accuracy and early warnings. This model benefits from: 

  • Using financial statements and default data from the Moody's CRD Consortium, which includes contributions from over 80 institutions worldwide, making it the largest dataset of its kind. This data is enhanced by Moody's extensive expertise in credit analysis and modeling.

  • Incorporating factors such as firm risk, type of debt, capital structure, and prevailing market default conditions.

  • A specialized set of country models that accurately reflect the default and credit behavior specific to each jurisdiction.

News and views

article

Sep 03, 2024

 Moody's
Master data management in insurance: A strategic imperative

Elevate insurance industry operations with strategic data management. Overcome data challenges for improved customer experiences, underwriting accuracy, and regulatory compliance. Harness the power of data for market differentiation.

  • Insurance
  • Underwriting
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article

Sep 03, 2024

 Moody's
Innovation in trade credit insurance underwriting

Explore the future of trade credit underwriting with AI-driven insights, cybersecurity, and B2B data for a proactive, comprehensive risk management strategy.

  • Insurance
  • Underwriting
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