Press release

• Munich Re support for project to develop a global, open-source earthquake model
  
  
• Global Earthquake Model generating information of the highest standard through cooperation between many of the world’s top earthquake experts
  
  
• Munich Re sees improved opportunities in the medium term for loss prevention and insurability 

Munich Re is injecting €5m into an expert model that in its initial stage will for the first time adopt a uniform approach towards representing earthquake risk worldwide. The model will also include regions which previous approaches virtually ignored or failed to observe in sufficient detail. Given the input of knowledge from hundreds of earthquake experts all over the world, the model can thus be regarded as setting new scientific and economic standards.

The project was initiated by the OECD Global Science Forum and conceived in the form of a public-private partnership. The project will be launched at the start of 2008. As a founding sponsor, Munich Re will promote the work of a scientific network of specialists all over the world that will be coordinated by the Swiss Seismological Service at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, the Geo Research Centre in Potsdam, and the US Geological Survey. The hazard information gleaned from the first project stage will be later extended to allow a description of loss scenarios in a risk model and an assessment of annual loss expectations. In accordance with the open-source principle, the project data will be available for use by anyone interested.

Torsten Jeworrek, member of Munich Re’s Board of Management, appraised the objectives of the Global Earthquake Model as follows: "This global model offers a very realistic opportunity to promote risk awareness and, through increased effort, to enhance loss prevention. Overall, a positive effect can be expected in the medium term for the worldwide insurability of earthquake risk."

Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft
signed Dr. Jeworrek           signed Dr. Lawrence