N.A.T.U.R and NATUR

Rating, cataloguing, and assessing environmental risks

The Windows rating program N·A·T·U·R is a Munich Re service product for rating environmental risks in Germany. This system will relieve you of the time-consuming and sometimes difficult task of allocating risks to certain risk classes, modules, and risk codes. Even extensive processes can be performed in a fraction of the time you would need for a manual rating.

Rating, cataloguing, and assessing environmental risks

The idea behind this system is to enable the underwriter to produce an indication of the premium and the exposure using only a few data entries. This assumes that environmentally relevant processing and production installations and supply and storage facilities have been identified and recorded for each risk.

The heart of NATURE is a database containing over 400 environmentally relevant types of installation which have been evaluated in accordance with their loss potential. The risk potential of the installations and the resulting damage to soil, air, and water have been qualitatively defined. In particular, specific account has been taken of harmful environmental impacts due to the accidental release of substances or energy, occurrences due to fire or explosion, and emissions during normal operations.

Each and every environmentally relevant installation has its own separate premium, depending on risk class, size of the installation, and limit of indemnity. A basic premium based on the public liability premium and the relevant economic sector can be additionally entered. Individual risk loadings and discounts reflecting quality and coverage requirements can also be stored in the system. In addition, company-specific expense ratios and limits of liability can be entered in NATURE.

Useful: electronic checklists

A distinction was made in the rating structure between storage and production facilities. The premium rates increase in line with the capacity of the particular installation and the risk class. The rates for accidental occurrences were derived from the German tariff for environmental impairment liability.

The individual installations are identified and documented on the basis of electronic checklists which are also stored in NATURE as Word documents and can be accessed there. The information contains land area, activities conducted on the installation, previous losses, existing contaminated sites, subsoil conditions, natural hazards, surrounding environment, adjacent bodies of water and nature conservation areas, fire and works fire-protection measures, management, organisational and technical safety measures in respect of installations, and emissions, including substances stored and released. The substances can be either selected from a list or freely entered.

NATURE can be used by underwriters to identify and evaluate the risk potential posed to the environment by industrial and business enterprises and to determine a premium commensurate with the risk. The system is designed for international use.

The premium rates in NATURE can be customised to an insurance company's individual underwriting policy or modified to meet specific claims requirements and market situations. Companies can also use it to produce their own tariff. Electronic checklists make it easier to determine risk quality and also to analyse the risk itself.