Axa in underwriting tool launch

Axa has launched a geo-coding underwriting tool for the assessment of flood, subsidence and terrorism risks to its underwriters.

The tool has been purpose built to Axa’s specifications by Mapflow, the location intelligent solution provider.

It enables underwriters to accurately assess flood, subsidence and terrorism risks for individual buildings and will enhance underwriters’ pricing and risk selection capability as well as reducing quotation time and fewer referrals.

Axa said the current assessment of flood and subsidence by postcode areas often leads to properties being declined incorrectly or risks being assessed wrongly as postcode areas can be very large.

Steve Wilcox, head of underwriting and technical development, said: “This technology provides our underwriters with the geographical intelligence needed to understand flood, subsidence and terrorism risks. It will help us to better understand our risk exposures and accumulation and ensure we are getting value from our reinsurance purchases.

"The tool is available now to all our underwriters and we are developing a version that will be available to brokers. It has also been ‘future proofed’ so we can easily develop the tool to assess a wider pool of risks, such as theft.”