Explanation

Background on the OED standard — what it is, its file structure and the exposure hierarchy. Detailed chapters (import format, asset details, geography & perils, financial terms and reinsurance) are migrated from the standard’s specification documents.

The four input files

OED comprises four input files, designed to let users enter data in a manageable way without having to understand the relationships between many underlying tables:

• Location (Loc) — the exposed locations and their coverages, characteristics and primary financial terms.

• Account (Acc) — accounts and policies, including policy-level financial terms and special conditions.

• Reinsurance Info (ReinsInfo) — the reinsurance programme definitions.

• Reinsurance Scope (ReinsScope) — what each reinsurance contract applies to.

This trades some duplication for practicality. The full field lists are in the field reference.

The exposure hierarchy

OED follows an organisational and financial hierarchy familiar to catastrophe-model users:

Coverage

The lowest level — the specific type of cover: Buildings, Other (e.g. appurtenant structures or motor), Contents, and Business Interruption (time element). Primary financial terms can attach at coverage level, across property damage (PD = Buildings + Other + Contents), or across all coverages.

Location

A site — a group of coverages at one place. Primary financial terms and facultative reinsurance can attach here. A single location record can represent several buildings (NumberOfBuildings), and related locations can be linked (LocGroup).

Policy

A financial structure applying to a set of locations. Multiple policies can exist under the same account and apply to the same locations (e.g. insurance layers). Within a policy, a special condition applies sub-limits/sub-deductibles to a subset of locations. Reinsurance can attach at policy level.

Account

The top organisational level, grouping policies. A portfolio (PortNumber) groups accounts.

Coded values

Many OED fields draw on controlled vocabularies (perils, occupancy, construction, country, coverage). Those allowed values are in the coded values reference.

Detailed chapters

The full specification narrative, migrated from the OED standard documents:

• Rationale
• OED Import Format
• Asset Related Details
• Geography and Perils
• Financial Details - Primary Insurance
• Policy Special Conditions
• CondTag
• CondNumber
• CondPeril
• Nested hierarchal conditions
• CondPriority
• Policy restrictions
• CondClass
• Conditions on multi-policy accounts
• Reinsurance