Swiss Re Catastrophe Data to Integrate With SAS Insurance Life Cycle Accelerator

Swiss Re Catastrophe Data to Integrate With SAS Insurance Life Cycle Accelerator

(IN BRIEF) SAS and Swiss Re have formed a partnership to help insurers strengthen underwriting, pricing and portfolio resilience by combining Swiss Re’s CatNet® natural catastrophe risk intelligence with the SAS® Insurance Life Cycle Accelerator and SAS’ AI, actuarial modelling and decisioning capabilities. The collaboration will allow insurers to embed predictive hazard insights directly into underwriting, pricing and portfolio management workflows, using secure APIs, geocoding, machine learning, real-time model scoring, business rules and governed AI processes. The companies said the offering can improve decisioning efficiency by 95 percent, boost modelling efficiency by 50 percent, and allow underwriting teams to review 40 percent more risks with the same manpower. The partnership comes as insurers face growing exposure to climate-driven secondary perils such as floods, hailstorms and wildfires, with Swiss Re Institute stating that 99.9 percent of insured catastrophe losses in the United States in 2025 originated from secondary peril events. SAS and Swiss Re said the combined solution will help insurers better understand risk concentration, perform “what-if” portfolio analyses, close protection gaps, support sustainable pricing and build more resilient insurance portfolios.

(PRESS RELEASE) MARLOW, 13-Aug-2026 — /EuropaWire/ — SAS, a global leader in data and artificial intelligence, has entered into a partnership with Swiss Re, a leading global reinsurance provider, to help insurers improve risk intelligence, underwriting, pricing and portfolio resilience.

The collaboration brings together Swiss Re’s catastrophe risk expertise with SAS’ AI, actuarial modelling and decisioning capabilities.

As part of the SAS Strategic Technology Partner Program, Swiss Re will integrate its CatNet® natural catastrophe risk intelligence with the SAS® Insurance Life Cycle Accelerator.

The combined capabilities are designed to allow insurers to incorporate predictive hazard insights directly into underwriting, pricing and portfolio management workflows.

Stu Bradley, Senior Vice President for Risk, Fraud and Compliance Solutions at SAS, said insurers can no longer rely only on historical loss data to understand risk.

He said the combination of SAS’ AI and actuarial modelling capabilities with Swiss Re’s catastrophe intelligence will help insurers make faster, more transparent and more resilient underwriting and pricing decisions.

Rising exposure from secondary perils

The partnership comes as insurers face growing pressure from climate-driven events and so-called secondary perils, including floods, hailstorms and wildfires.

According to Swiss Re Institute, Swiss Re’s research and thought leadership arm, 99.9 percent of insured catastrophe losses in the United States in 2025 came from secondary peril events.

The figure highlights the increasing importance of managing risks that can have significant financial consequences for insurers and policyholders.

The joint SAS and Swiss Re offering will allow insurers to access high-resolution CatNet natural catastrophe data directly within existing SAS workflows through secure APIs and geocoding.

This means hazard intelligence can be embedded into actuarial and underwriting processes without manual data manipulation.

The solution is also designed to support automated and advanced decisioning.

Real-time model scoring using machine learning can incorporate current hazard information and event notifications.

Enriched decision intelligence can then be used for pricing, rating and underwriting, with model scores unified alongside business rules.

The solution also supports champion-challenger strategies within guardrails for profit-loss ratio, fairness and compliance.

For portfolio risk steering, insurers can use the combined capabilities to better understand concentration risk, assess portfolio impacts and carry out “what-if” analyses across geographies and perils.

SAS and Swiss Re expect the combined solution to deliver significant operational efficiencies.

The companies estimate a 95 percent increase in decisioning efficiency and a 50 percent efficiency improvement in the modelling process.

They also said underwriting teams could review 40 percent more risks with the same manpower, supporting both volume growth and bottom-line performance.

The solution also includes governance and auditability features.

Governed and explainable AI workflows are intended to support regulatory and operational transparency.

Instead of fragmented spreadsheet-based logic, the cloud-native approach provides lineage, visibility and audit control from exposure data through to final rate deployment.

Helping insurers build resilient portfolios

Ali Shahkarami, Head Risk Data Solutions Insurance at Swiss Re, said secondary perils should not be considered secondary in terms of financial impact.

He said insurers need to understand how risk is evolving across portfolios and geographies in near-real time.

Shahkarami added that Swiss Re and SAS are enabling carriers to integrate catastrophe intelligence directly into underwriting and actuarial decision-making, helping them better anticipate risk, close protection gaps and build more sustainable portfolios.

The partnership reflects a wider industry shift toward insurance operations that combine AI, advanced analytics, catastrophe intelligence and human expertise to support more agile decision-making.

Franklin Manchester, Principal Global Insurance Advisor at SAS, said the future of insurance will be shaped by enterprises adopting the concept of “new collar” work.

He said insurance professionals working with AI agents to improve decision-making agility will distinguish industry leaders from laggards.

Webinar on secondary perils and sustainable pricing

SAS and Swiss Re are also addressing these themes through a free webinar titled “Sustainable Property Pricing for Today and Tomorrow in an Evolving Natural Catastrophe Landscape.”

The session, held with Definity, explores the rise of secondary perils driven by climate change, sustainable property pricing and risk selection, and ways to build portfolio resilience for long-term growth.

About SAS

SAS is a global leader in data and AI, helping organisations make confident decisions with AI they can trust.

For decades, SAS has delivered software designed to create meaningful impact, supported by deep industry expertise, transparency and governance.

SAS gives organisations THE POWER TO KNOW®.

Through the partnership with Swiss Re, SAS is expanding the use of AI-driven insurance decisioning to help insurers respond to changing catastrophe exposure, improve operational efficiency and build more resilient underwriting and portfolio management practices.

Editorial contacts:

SAS UK
David Smith
David.C.Smith@suk.sas.com
+44 1628 490 433

Visit the SAS Newsroom
https://www.sas.com/en_gb/news.html

SOURCE: SAS