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A new submission rarely arrives in isolation. Before an underwriter decides whether to quote, the risk has to be considered against the portfolio that is already on the books: existing exposure around the location, potential loss, and the history of catastrophe activity in the area.
The challenge is that these pieces of information are often assembled separately. Portfolio data sits in one place, catastrophe information in another, while the submission itself is reviewed through the underwriting workflow. CATlas was built to bring those elements together, giving underwriters a clearer view of both the individual risk and the wider exposure behind it.
Looking Beyond the Submission
When a property risk is being considered, the characteristics of the submission are only part of the picture. An underwriter may also need to know what the company already carries around that location and how the proposed risk changes the existing concentration.
CATlas allows the user to define a radius around a proposed site and see the portfolio policies already located within it. The view includes the sum insured, structure and distance of individual portfolio risks, while the proposed submission can be assessed alongside estimated PML and the exposure already sitting in the selected zone.
This makes accumulation part of the underwriting view rather than a separate exercise carried out after the submission has already been reviewed. The purpose is not to replace underwriting judgement, but to put relevant exposure information in front of the underwriter while the decision is being made.
Adding Historical Hazard Context
Current accumulation tells an underwriter what is exposed today. Historical hazard data provides a different layer of context: what has happened around that location before.
CATlas can show up to 100 years of recorded earthquake, cyclone, flood and wildfire activity around a proposed site, including the category or magnitude of an event, its source and its distance from the property. Users can also define inner and outer radii and set thresholds to reflect their own underwriting appetite.
The system draws on established catastrophe and geospatial sources. These include the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program for earthquakes, NOAA National Hurricane Center / IBTrACS and JTWC for cyclones, Copernicus GloFAS and Dartmouth Flood Observatory for floods, and NASA FIRMS for wildfire data. Mapping is supported by CARTO, OpenStreetMap and Esri World Imagery.
The value of this information comes from seeing it alongside the proposed risk and existing portfolio exposure. Rather than reviewing hazard history as a separate dataset, the underwriter can consider recurrence, accumulation and potential loss within the same decision context.
From a Single Risk to the Whole Portfolio
CATlas is not limited to analysing one submission at a time. The platform can also be used to maintain a wider view of the bound portfolio.
Thousands of contracts and location rows can be uploaded in bulk, allowing exposure to be aggregated across countries and individual sites. Portfolio totals can be ranked and filtered by facultative or treaty business, as well as proportional or non-proportional structures.
This changes the perspective from a single underwriting decision to portfolio-level exposure monitoring. A location can be reviewed in relation to nearby risks, while the wider book remains visible in the background.
For reinsurance teams managing geographically distributed portfolios, that connection matters. The same portfolio information used to understand accumulation around a new submission can also support a broader view of where exposure is concentrated across the book.
Monitoring Catastrophe Events Against the Portfolio
Exposure information becomes particularly useful when it can be viewed against events as they occur.
CATlas brings live catastrophe feeds onto the portfolio map and matches events against accounts in the book. Users can draw an impact buffer around an event and identify which accounts fall within the selected footprint.
This creates a direct link between an external catastrophe event and the portfolio locations that may require attention. Instead of viewing an event map separately and then reconciling it manually against internal exposure records, the two are presented in the same environment.
The platform covers earthquakes, storms, floods and fires, providing a common geographic view for both underwriting assessment and ongoing exposure monitoring.
Claims can reveal more than individual loss development
Claims teams naturally focus on individual files: reserve changes, coverage questions, documentation, payments, and settlement. At portfolio level, however, those same claims can reveal broader trends.
Management may want to understand whether claims are developing differently in certain territories, whether reserve movements are becoming more frequent in a particular line of business, or whether specific contract structures are producing different outcomes. These questions require claims information to be connected with underwriting, exposure, and contract data rather than viewed in isolation.
This is where claims data becomes a source of portfolio intelligence rather than simply an administrative record. The objective is not only to manage individual losses effectively, but also to understand what those losses are telling the organization about the wider book of business.
A More Connected Underwriting Context
The broader issue behind CATlas is not a lack of data. Reinsurance organisations already work with large volumes of exposure information, contract data, location records and external catastrophe datasets.
The practical challenge is connecting those sources in a way that supports the decision being made. An exposure figure means more when the underwriter can see where it sits geographically, what other risks are nearby, how much potential loss is already concentrated in the area and what historical hazard activity has affected that location.
This is closely related to a wider shift in reinsurance technology. Structured data is necessary, but its value increases when it is connected to the operational context in which people actually use it. In underwriting, that means moving from isolated data points toward a view that connects the submission, existing portfolio exposure and external hazard information.
CATlas applies that principle to both the risk in front of the underwriter and the book behind it.
Built for Production Use
CATlas is already operating inside a live reinsurer, where the bound portfolio is mapped and catastrophe feeds are used alongside it in day-to-day operations. The product materials describe it as a production system rather than a concept or prototype.
That distinction is important. Exposure analytics only becomes useful when it can fit into the realities of underwriting and portfolio management: large numbers of contracts, multiple locations, different business structures and catastrophe events that need to be assessed against the book.
CATlas brings those elements into one environment, giving underwriters a way to examine the individual submission without losing sight of the portfolio context around it
Seeing the Risk and the Portfolio Together
Underwriting decisions will always depend on specialist judgement. What technology can improve is the quality and accessibility of the information available when that judgement is applied.
By combining accumulation, estimated PML, historical hazard information, portfolio exposure and live catastrophe monitoring, CATlas is designed to give reinsurance teams a more connected view of risk. The underwriter can examine what is being proposed while also seeing what is already on the books and what is happening around those exposures.
For reinsurance operations, that connection between individual risk and portfolio context is increasingly valuable. Better visibility does not make the underwriting decision. It gives the people making that decision a clearer picture of what they are deciding on.