Tech Update: Howden Re Offers Property-Level Modeling for SRCC Risks

Howden Re, the reinsurance arm of insurance broker Howden, is partnering with the modeling company Synthetik Insurance Technologies, to launch an analytical tool designed to help insurers and reinsurers better understand, quantify, and manage strikes, riots and civil commotion (SRCC) risk. The tool, called “UNREST,” combines property-level analytics and dynamic event simulation to provide a more granular view of SRCC exposure and potential loss scenarios. Designed to support underwriting, portfolio management and reinsurance decision-making, it helps users identify concentrations of risk, assess accumulation potential, and understand the potential impact of SRCC events across portfolios, Howden Re said. Insured losses from civil unrest events have risen sharply in recent years, driven by an increasingly volatile geopolitical environment, said Howden Re, noting, however, that the analytical tools available to the market have not kept pace. Unlike natural catastrophe perils, SRCC events do not follow consistent historical patterns: they are shaped by political dynamics, urban geography and the speed of social mobilization, making scenario-based modeling essential, Howden Re said. “While traditional approaches rely on broad geographic assessments or aggregate loss data, UNREST generates realistic event scenarios and models their potential impact at the property level, providing more localized insight across portfolios.” The Howden Re Marine, Energy & Terror team is undertaking a model enhancement process to bring real value and significant benefits to reinsurers, as well as insurance clients, the company said. “UNREST is the first model capable of quantifying existing market event definitions for SRCC. It will give both parties clear insight into the potential loss quantum associated with the variance in the radii/hour clauses that make up current occurrence wordings,” it continued. “SRCC has become an increasingly important consideration for insurers and reinsurers, but the tools available to assess the risk have struggled to keep pace with how these events actually unfold,” commented Andrew Foot, managing director, Howden Re, in a statement. “UNREST sets a new standard for how this risk is assessed and managed. By pairing Howden Re’s market expertise with Synthetik’s modeling technology, we are giving both clients and reinsurers, a far more granular view of exposure, accumulation, and potential loss at the property level,” Foot said. “That means better-informed underwriting, sharper portfolio management, and a clear advantage over those still relying on tools that were not built for how SRCC risk actually behaves.” “Modeling SRCC risk with real precision has long been a challenge for the industry, partly because these events don’t follow the kind of consistent historical patterns that other perils do,” according to Synthetik CEO Brian Watson. “Our approach generates realistic event routes and footprints at the property level, rather than relying solely on broad historical or demographic trends.” Related: War Overtakes Civil Unrest as Top Political Violence Exposure for Global Businesses Iran War Could Raise Exposures for Global Terrorism, Political Violence Underwriters World’s Growing Civil Unrest Has an Insurance Sting Cyber Tops List of Business Risks With Geopolitical Volatility Surging Into Top 10: Aon Predictive Model Delivers Insights as Insurers, Reinsurers Brace for More Civil Unrest Topics InsurTech Tech Property