A New Era in Cat Management with DASK

One of the main objectives of the Turkish National Catastrophe Insurance Pool (DASK / TCIP) is to increase earthquake awareness among citizens for helping prevent earthquakes turning into disasters in our country and to ensure everyone to take necessary precautions for this purpose. Increasing awareness about earthquake is also an important prerequisite for increasing the penetration rate of Compulsory EQ Policy and reaching the goal of 10 million insured homes before 2020.

Along with increasing the penetration rate of the earthquake policies, claims and catastrophe management has always been another primary concern of DASK. For this reason, DASK continuously invests in technology in order to improve its claims adjusting capacity.

In order to be successful in managing disasters, it is important for DASK to have a robust platform which is capable of processing the loss adjustment of both structural and nonstructural damages during not only small but also large scale earthquakes with a large number of claim files. It is also important to have a robust infrastructure that is capable of handling several million claim files in case of a severe earthquake. Nevertheless, small and medium size damages also occur in Turkey, so the system should also be capable of serving for these types of damages as well.

Proper assessment of earthquake damage in a building is another determining factor in disaster management. The loss adjustment process of a minor-damaged building is very different than the one for a building with a substantial structural damage. Handling such minor claims may result in a heavy burden on the operational capacity of DASK, whereas heavy damages may result in a financial burden. DASK has developed a target disaster management model for handling both heavy and minor damage cases. The methodology for assessing earthquake damage to a building is developed in collaboration with universities and it is scientifically proven with similar methods.

In order to build an infrastructure that enables DASK to manage claims caused by any kind of catastrophic events including severe earthquake, cooperation with expert business partners was engaged.

DASK Cat Management Platform improved for managing the claims business process is in use since beginning of 2016. It is customized according to new methodologies and principles, some of which are:

• Multi-line claim notification & Adjuster Appointment: in case of a severe earthquake, claim files can be created without notification by SMS, web, IVR or Call Center for every insured dwelling at the selected areas. The appointment of loss adjusters is also possible for each apartment block collectively.
• Multi-Level Assessment Process: The process runs on a Mobile Loss Assessment Tool. Categorization of Building Damage for structural damages and Claim Standardization Tool for assessment of nonstructural damages of each insured dwelling runs on the mobile that enables standard, quick and easy loss assessment and on-line data transfer.
• Smart Transactions: Web, mobile tools, and IVR will be used during claims operational and management process. The clients will run the process without human assistance.
• Simple & Easy Claim Payment: The insureds will be able to receive payments just with their personal ID's from any branch of supporting banks in Turkey.
• Integration to GIS Platform (ARYS)

The DASK Disaster Risk Management System (ARYS) will be used especially for managing the earthquake process. The development of the ARYS platform that contains on-desk loss assessment and change detection analysis modules is being carried out with a local partner. With this project, pre-earthquake and post-earthquake aerial photos and satellite images are used to determine the extent of losses, collapses, destruction of the buildings and field damage progress after earthquake shocks. The first phase of the platform was completed by the end of 2014 and it comprises analysis for the Istanbul region. An extension to all of Turkey will be possible after the completion of several nation-wide projects.

Concurrently, the second phase of the software development for integrating ARYS to the Cat Management Platform is in progress.

Before a catastrophic event, ARYS may be used in disaster preparedness; for the analysis of the financial risk exposure, determination of the resource needs for cat response, and planning of response operations. Following a disaster, quick determination of the extent of the damage, organizing disaster response teams and loss adjusters, support to claim management operations will also be possible.

DASK's priority is to improve its Cat Management systems to be ready for a severe earthquake. Another priority for DASK is to develop contingency resources for loss adjustment, where important steps have already been taken.