--- title: "Spicy Crab and Nat Cat Risk: What I Learned on My Asia Risk Tour" description: Author Ivan Maddox reveals insights gained on his trip to Asia to learn how insurers are handling their risk assessment, particularly for flood risk. image: http://www.intermap.com/hubfs/Blog/CDsEsyBUgAArNLI.jpg --- [Investors](https://www.intermap.com/investors-2018-0) |[ Partners](https://www.intermap.com/partners-2018-0) |  [WebStore](https://store.intermap.com/MapShop.aspx?GeoLocation=World) [![Intermap Technologies Inc.](https://www.intermap.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Intermap%20Logo%202019%20-%20White.png?width=1656&height=277&name=Intermap%20Logo%202019%20-%20White.png "Intermap Technologies Inc.")](http://intermap.com) # [The Risks of Hazard](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog) ## [Spicy Crab and Nat Cat Risk: What I Learned on My Asia Risk Tour](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/2015/04/what-i-learned-on-asia-risk-tour) Posted by [Ivan Maddox](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/author/ivan-maddox) on Apr 30, 2015 2:02:56 PM Find me on: [LinkedIn](http://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanmaddox) [Twitter ](https://twitter.com/IvanHazMaps) - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) As you may recall, a few weeks ago [I mentioned I was planning a trip to Asia](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/adventures-in-risk-assessment-exploring-the-asian-market) to try and find out how insurers, brokers, and reinsurers are handling their risk assessment, particularly for flood risk. As I sit on the flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco, I have the memories from my 10-day Asia Risk Tour still fresh in my mind. Foremost are the warm welcomes we received everywhere we went, with immaculate hospitality from all our hosts. The food is also still vivid in my mind, from the Under Bridge Spicy Crab in Hong Kong to the famous street food stalls of Singapore, filled with sate and spicy seafood. Coffees and cocktails were enjoyed both under the ground and hundreds of feet in the sky. ![eating on the Asian risk tour](http://www.intermap.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blog/CDsEsyBUgAArNLI.jpg?width=574&name=CDsEsyBUgAArNLI.jpg "eating on the Asian risk tour") I also learned a lot about how the insurance market in Asia manages location-specific risks, especially from natural catastrophes (nat cat), which of course is what I was there to do. Until 2011, nat cat was largely neglected in Asia Pacific. Compared to the amount of available business and the other risks involved, it was a low priority and did not get much attention from the industry as a whole. Then, in the space of 12 months, [Brisbane flooded](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010%E2%80%9311_Queensland_floods), Japan was damaged and then inundated by the [Tohoku earthquake and tsunami](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_T%C5%8Dhoku_earthquake_and_tsunami), and [Thailand flooded](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Thailand_floods). Nat cat mattered in Asia Pacific practically overnight as the region led the world innat cat losses. ![hotel view on Asian risk tour](https://www.intermap.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blog/CDr78EcWoAAeP_Q_1-100687-edited.jpg?width=276&name=CDr78EcWoAAeP_Q_1-100687-edited.jpg "hotel view on Asian risk tour")Four years on, the industry is still learning about it. We encountered the full range of attitudes to nat cat during our travels, from apathy to focused efforts toward functional underwriting systems that manage it. One constant finding, though, was a lack of dependable peril data for the whole region — predominantly flood. Some companies not doing much about nat cat bury it in other perils, such as fire or explosion, while others depend on nat cat analytics from their global bases of operations. Some carriers, though, are definitely addressing nat cat in their underwriting by building data warehouses and systems to furnish underwriters with what they need. The real efforts to put nat cat squarely into underwriting, though, are coming from the reinsurance brokers. The brokers we talked to all expressed their desire to teach their clients to manage nat cat risk more effectively, and are furnishing them with the necessary information and tools to do it. Each broker is taking a slightly different approach, including technical workshops, custom peril models and advanced analytics to this endeavor, but they are all committed to increasing the understanding of nat cat in underwriting. I am sure the reinsurers greatly appreciate this. Asia Pacific definitely has challenges that are specific to the region, including: potential impact from a full array of natural perils across huge land areas, remote business units, a lack of commercial software available to help them, and immature data sources within most of the countries. These are all challenges I’m looking forward to helping address in the coming months, because they can all be overcome. Topics: [Natural Hazard Risk](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/natural-hazard-risk), [Insurance Underwriting](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/insurance-underwriting), [Risk Management](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/risk-management), [Natural Catastrophe](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/natural-catastrophe), [Flood Risk](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/flood-risk) ## [The Risks of Hazard Blog](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog)   [![rss-feed](https://www.intermap.com/hs-fs/hub/395294/file-2218415117-png/images/rss-feed.png?width=27&name=rss-feed.png)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/rss.xml) Welcome to The Risks of Hazard, brought to you by Intermap Technologies®. From the latest industry news and trends, to insight from thought leaders around the globe, stay tuned for a variety of content aimed at helping you better understand the role of location-based intelligence in the world of insurance underwriting and risk assessment. To see how Intermap delivers analytics tailored to your underwriting, visit our [InsitePro](https://www.intermap.com/software/insitepro) page. ### Subscribe to the Risks of Hazard blog! ### Posts by Topic - [Flood Insurance (64)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/flood-insurance) - [Insurance Underwriting (62)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/insurance-underwriting) - [Flood Risk (43)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/flood-risk) - [Risk Management (42)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/risk-management) - [Insurance Protection Gap (32)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/insurance-protection-gap) - [Private Flood (29)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/private-flood) - [Flood Modeling (28)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/flood-modeling) - [Property Insurance (26)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/property-insurance) - [Natural Hazard Risk (25)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/natural-hazard-risk) - [Natural Catastrophe (24)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/natural-catastrophe) - [Floods (23)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/floods) - [InsitePro (21)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/insitepro) - [Risk Scoring (17)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/risk-scoring) - [Wildfire (17)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/wildfire) - [Insurance Software (16)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/insurance-software) - [Insurance Technology (16)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/insurance-technology) - [Effective Underwriting (15)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/effective-underwriting) - [Earthquake (12)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/earthquake) - [Other Risk Models (11)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/other-risk-models) - [NFIP (10)](https://www.intermap.com/risks-of-hazard-blog/topic/nfip) ©2026 Intermap Technologies®. 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