ISO Files Revisions to Fire Suppression Rating Schedule and Public Protection Classification Structure

2013-01-14 16:02:22 -

JERSEY CITY, N.J., January 14, 2013 - ISO announced today that it has filed

revisions both to modernize and enhance its Fire Suppression Rating Schedule

(FSRS) and to restructure property rating rules to recognize a revised Public

Protection Classification (PPC) structure. ISO is a member of the Verisk

Insurance Solutions group at Verisk Analytics (Nasdaq:VRSK).



"ISO undertook a comprehensive effort to review the content of the FSRS with the

goal to identify those portions of the current grading evaluation that warranted

necessary revision,"   according to Robert Andrews, vice president of Community

Hazard Mitigation, who is responsible for countrywide implementation of ISO's

PPC program. "ISO initiated dialogue with national water, fire, and emergency

communication associations and dozens of municipal fire authorities to develop a

significant body of feedback relating to modernization of the FSRS."



"To enhance the predictive value of our PPC program, ISO conducted extensive

actuarial and statistical modeling analyses," Andrews emphasized. "We evaluated

each section of the FSRS to determine its correlation with fire losses. The

result is an increasingly predictive and modern schedule that incorporates

standards developed by professional organizations such as the National Fire

Protection Association, American Water Works Association, and Association of

Public-Safety Communications Officials International."

ISO collects information on municipal fire protection efforts for more than

47,000 fire response jurisdictions throughout the United States. Using the Fire

Suppression Rating Schedule, ISO assigns a Public Protection Classification from

1 to 10, with Class 1 generally representing superior property fire protection

and Class 10 indicating that the area's fire suppression program doesn't meet

minimum criteria. When applied by ISO's staff of professional field surveyors,

the revised FSRS provides crucial information for understanding the entire

landscape of risk associated with a specific property.



"The PPC has long been recognized as a pillar of property insurance where

reliable, up-to-date information about a community's fire protection services

has been proven to correlate directly to underlying risk," said Kevin Thompson,

president of ISO Insurance Programs and Analytic Services.



"During development of the new edition of the FSRS, we examined commercial

property and homeowners loss experience," added Thompson. "Based on the results

of that analysis, we plan to introduce new categories within the PPC structure

to recognize favorable loss experience for certain communities, relative to

split classifications, that reflect the reduced loss potential when compared to

single-class communities."



A split classification is one in which properties within a given community may

vary in class based on their distance from a responding fire station or distance

from a recognized water source (for example, hydrant).



ISO will begin applying the new schedule this summer, with the revised PPC

structure taking effect in 2014.



About ISO

Since 1971, ISO has been a leading source of information about property/casualty

insurance risk. For a broad spectrum of commercial and personal lines of

insurance, the company provides statistical, actuarial, underwriting, and claims

information; policy language; information about specific locations; fraud

identification tools; and technical services. ISO serves insurers, reinsurers,

agents and brokers, insurance regulators, risk managers, and other participants

in the property/casualty insurance marketplace. ISO is a member of the Verisk

Insurance Solutions group at Verisk Analytics (Nasdaq:VRSK). For more

information, visit www.iso.com and www.verisk.com.



Contact:



Jessica Riccardi/Giuseppe Barone

MWW Group (for ISO)

(201) 507-9500

jriccardi@mww.com

gbarone@mww.com







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Source: Verisk Analytics Inc. via Thomson Reuters ONE

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