Howden Re has announced a new partnership with Templor Inc., a company specializing in disaster modeling and seismic risk assessment.

Through this collaboration, Howden Re said it will gain access to Templor’s SiteAmp model, which provides data-driven insights into earthquake susceptibility and impact in Turkey.

In addition, Myrto Papaspiliou, Head of International Modeling and Evaluation Research at Howden Re, will join Templor’s Scientific Advisory Board as part of the partnership.

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Founded in 2014 by former USGS scientists, Templor provides earthquake models used by insurance and reinsurance companies, as well as the insurance-linked securities community.

Howden Re said the integration of Temblor’s SiteAmp model is expected to significantly benefit the company by leveraging unique soil amplification models, which are essential to understanding the extensive damage experienced by the 2023 Kahramanmaras earthquakes.

These events resulted in economic losses exceeding $100 billion and insured losses of $6.2 billion. Howden Re also indicated that through these tools it aims to support Turkish ceding companies in making more confident decisions regarding risk management.

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While the initial focus of the partnership will be on Turkey, Howden Re and Templor are exploring the possibility of expanding their collaboration to other earthquake-prone regions in Europe, Asia and South America.

Papaspilio pointed to the importance of the earthquakes that will occur in 2023 as a reminder of the potential impact of a major earthquake near Istanbul, highlighting the importance of earthquake preparedness.

“We strongly believe that it is essential to bring together the best science and data to overcome model limitations, support our customers in identifying their own risks, and increase resilience to earthquakes,” she said.

This partnership also aligns with Howden’s efforts to expand its capabilities in the region and build on existing work to incorporate state-of-the-art science and loss experiments into disaster modeling.

Howden Re said it aims to provide a comprehensive and market-leading view of the risks facing ceding companies in Turkey, by pooling knowledge from recent European Seismic Hazard Studies (ESHM20 & ESRM20), detailed analyses, model calibration based on 2023 earthquake damage observations, and now Temblor’s SiteAmp model.

Mario Bautek (pictured above), Managing Director of International Growth Markets at Howden Re, commented on the devastating impact of the recent earthquakes in Turkey and the impact these types of partnerships have on resilience to natural disasters.

“By partnering with Templor, we will be able to provide greater clarity to beneficiaries and reinsurers, with up-to-date science and data that helps reduce uncertainty in model loss estimates,” said Bautek.

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