RMS Announces Release of RiskLink-DLM v4.1; New Software Product Leverages Detailed Loss Data for Quantifying Catastrophic Risk in Over 40 Territories Worldwide.

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 1, 1999--

Risk Management Solutions (RMS) announced today the release of RiskLink(R)-DLM v4.1 (Detailed Loss Module), its next-generation software solution for primary insurers and facultative reinsurers using detailed data to quantify catastrophe loss.

This product complements an upgrade to RiskLink-ALM(TM) v4.0 (Aggregate Loss Module), RMS' product for treaty reinsurers launched in October 1998. RiskLink-DLM v4.1 provides workgroup access to comprehensive catastrophe modeling, from a single location to an entire portfolio, for over 40 territories worldwide.

This product builds upon RMS' previous market-leading solutions by offering an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, a powerful set of exposure and results reporting and mapping capabilities, and a sophisticated and flexible insurance and reinsurance financial model. The interface is designed with the input of hundreds of end users and features flexible data import and export, spreadsheet-style cut-and-paste, integrated geocoding, and analysis batch processing.

RiskLink-DLM's decision support tools, such as exposure and loss reports based on company-defined queries and mapping of exposure and loss, help insurers and reinsurers understand key drivers of loss and areas of future business growth. New financial modeling capabilities, including those for account and location level reinsurance, reinstatements, inuring priorities, corporate catastrophe treaties, and stop loss treaties, allow insurers and reinsurers to model complex real-world insurance structures.

RiskLink-DLM v4.1 is founded on RMS' global suite of industry-leading risk assessment models covering over 40 territories, representing more than 90% of insured property premium worldwide. These models are developed to deliver insurers and reinsurers a consistent and integrated view of catastrophe risk on a single property, a complex account, or a global portfolio.

Current engineering information and modeling techniques are incorporated into updated catastrophe models for Japan, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and the entire Caribbean Basin to ensure RiskLink-DLM v4.1's accuracy in quantifying catastrophe risk worldwide.

"All these features are integrated in one software solution, providing a common platform for insurers, intermediaries, and reinsurers to analyze their exposures to catastrophic events," said Bruce Miller, director of Product Marketing. "RiskLink-DLM v4.1 can also help the wide range of risk management professionals manage catastrophe risk throughout the entire insurance organization, sharing a common analytical and database management system to meet their departmental needs."

RiskLink-DLM's open architecture enables users to scale database performance to meet increased requirements for analysis, simultaneous use, and data warehousing. The multi-threaded engine leverages multiple CPU workstations for improved system performance. System components can also be integrated and customized to work within a company's internal systems. RiskLink employs data stored in commercially available SQL databases and is accessed via the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) standard.

Like its counterpart, RiskLink-ALM, the design and functionality of RiskLink-DLM v4.1 mirrors the maturation of the catastrophe management practice of the insurance and reinsurance industries. Until recently, insurance professionals used catastrophe models primarily as a reference tool. Today, however, catastrophe models are utilized throughout an insurance enterprise, influencing day to day pricing, underwriting, claims response, capacity management, and risk transfer decisions.

Reflecting on this trend, Tom Hutton, chief executive officer at RMS, commented, "In 1988, RMS released its first product, IRAS(TM) v1.0, to only five clients. Today, RMS software sets the global standard for quantifying catastrophe risk. RiskLink products will be rolled out to over 2,000 underwriters, actuaries, and risk management professionals at insurance and reinsurance institutions throughout the world."

Risk Management Solutions (www.riskinc.com) is the world's leading provider of products and services for the quantification and management of property catastrophe, natural hazard and complex business risks. Its clients include leading insurers, reinsurers, industrial corporations, governments, and financial institutions.

Founded at Stanford University in 1988, RMS employs over 500 people worldwide, and has partnerships with leading companies in the areas of corporate risk, risk finance, and weather risk such as Arthur Andersen, EarthSat, and Oliver, Wyman and Company. RMS is owned by DMG Information, a division of the U.K.-based Daily Mail and General Trust plc media enterprise.

Note to Editors: RiskLink is a registered trademark and ALM is a trademark of Risk Management Solutions, Inc. IRAS is a trademark licensed exclusively to Risk Management Solutions, Inc. by Stanford University.