Note: EMB is now part of Towers Watson
General description of system
The Igloo financial modelling suite is specifically designed to enhance understanding of business risks, from simple applications to a corporate level top-down view of a financial enterprise. It can be used by a variety of organizations, including insurers, reinsurers, financial institutions, rating agencies and regulators.
The latest release of Igloo incorporates three editions that are designed to meet varying organizational and budget requirements. Igloo Compact Edition (ICE) is the entry-level product for companies seeking to establish a modelling foothold. Igloo Extreme offers the user full customization of the models while Igloo Enterprise additionally provides users with a distributed solution exploiting parallel processing agents and the potential for web enablement. An Audit version is also available to allow third parties to conduct independent audits of Igloo models.
Functions performed
Igloo is a fully integrated financial modelling tool that can be used by insurers to calculate regulatory capital and analyze risk exposures within or across functions, and as the technical engine for ERM. Any number of business variables can be modelled with any required dependencies between them. It has a strong statistical basis and includes a wide range of statistical distributions, a choice of dependency structures between key risk factors and graphics capabilities to visually identify features of your data.
Specific Solvency II features
Igloo is already used extensively by insurers for ICA submissions and to prepare for Solvency II. The features of Igloo enable users to develop models that will fully meet the needs of Solvency II if applied correctly within the business. It includes a specific module to assist companies in making QIS calculations.
Specifications
Igloo may be used on both desktop and shared server installations. Key features are
- a rapid model development environment using a range of reusable pre-built library modules and Igloo's building block approach to developing model components from scratch.
- transparency: that enables the user to see every formula and investigate intermediate results.
Igloo can accept and use output from third party catastrophe models and economic scenario generators. It can also be linked to other software packages such as Microsoft Excel, Access and SQL Server.
Licensing/sales/support
Igloo licences come with training included, and the annual licence renewal fee includes upgrades and access to a dedicated support helpline. Many clients engage EMB to help them develop their initial models or provide later reviews, but this is not a requirement.
Types of user
The majority of current users are insurance companies, although Igloo is also used by regulators and increasingly by other financial services businesses for modelling investment risk.
Areas/countries with the most users
Of the more than 400 Igloo licences held worldwide, most are in Europe but there are significant numbers of Igloo users in the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region.
Contact person and details
Richard Millns, Towers Watson
Tel: 01372 751060
Email: richard.millns@towerswatson.com
Andrzej Czernuszewicz, Towers Watson
Tel: 01372 751060
Email: andrzej.czernuszewicz@towerswatson.com