Inter-American Development Bank Signs Contract with ABS Corporate Solutions, EQECAT for Catastrophic Risk Analysis Project
August 21, 2006
Wilmington, Delaware
ABS Corporate Solutions, and its affiliate EQECAT, Inc., said today that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has signed a contract for a catastrophic risk analysis project focusing on Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru and Jamaica.
The analysis will be used to develop risk management strategies that help countries reduce preventable losses from disasters as well as safeguard the effectiveness of the Bank's development assistance.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
ABS Corporate Solutions is a leader in providing innovative, optimal risk management consulting services and technologies to major business sectors worldwide. EQECAT is the leading authority on extreme risk modeling. The IDB is the main source of multilateral financing for economic, social and institutional development projects, as well as trade and regional integration programs, in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Under the agreement, ABS Corporate Solutions and EQECAT will provide analyses designed to identify important disaster risk issues in the context of development priorities for each of the four countries and assist the countries and the IDB in understanding risk management priorities.
These assessments will inform the IDB’s country strategies, which include issues related to various sectors such as infrastructure and education and help identify and quantify risks associated with IDB’s lending portfolio.
The primary components of the evaluation include developing a disaster risk profile to quantify the potential impact on public and private assets from an array of natural and man-made perils, as well as identifying government risk management priorities; assessing current risk management strategies and capacity to manage disaster risk in the context of development priorities; and, identifying IDB's portfolio exposures to natural hazards, and the potential implications for the Bank's efforts.
"These components are critical to providing the necessary recommendations for implementing an effective program designed to improve the IDB's ability to help countries anticipate and manage a range of relevant catastrophic risks which could pose a threat to development in the region," said Kenneth Travers, Senior Vice President, ABS Corporate Solutions.
"ABS Corporate Solutions' suite of services is geared toward providing risk officers at corporations, and government and related organizations worldwide with an independent view of risk from extreme events," Mr. Travers said."The engineering and risk assessment support we receive from our parent company, ABS Consulting, coupled with the real-world tested modeling technology provided by EQECAT, enables us to provide a superior risk management program for any organization," he said.
ABS Corporate Solutions will use EQECAT's WORLDCATenterprise™ platform, in addition to conducting various technical workshops and in-country meetings with local, economic and government officials, to develop an appropriate view of the risk to private and public assets, infrastructure and the economic impact from a potential catastrophic event in each country.
About Inter-American Development Bank
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) was established in 1959 to help accelerate economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Today, the bank is a major catalyst in mobilizing resources for the region. It is owned by its 47 member countries. It has headquarters in Washington, D.C., with country offices in each member nation in Latin America and the Caribbean, and special offices in Paris and Tokyo.
The bank provides loans, technical assistance and policy guidance to further its goals of poverty reduction and sustainable development in the Latin American and Caribbean regions. The four official languages of the bank are: Spanish, English, French and Portuguese. For more information about the bank, please visit the bank’s website at www.iadb.org.
EQECAT, Inc. provides state-of-the-art products and services to the global property and casualty insurance, reinsurance and financial markets. EQECAT is the technical leader and innovator of catastrophe risk management models that quantify exposure to a range of natural and man-made catastrophic risks.
Through its modeling software platform, WORLDCATenterprise, EQECAT enables clients to quantify and manage the potential financial impact of natural hazards. WORLDCATenterprise includes 181 natural hazard software models for 95 countries spanning six continents. These models are based upon innovative applications of the latest science, engineering expertise, claims and exposure data and advanced mathematics.
EQECAT, a subsidiary of ABSG Consulting Inc., was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Oakland, California.
For more information, contact:
pr@eqecat.com