Wheaton, Ill., April 27, 2010--Property/casualty insurers will have access to an expanded array of risk-related data and tools to analyze that data under a program announced by the American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS).

AAIS is a national advisory organization that develops standardized policy forms and rating information used by more than 600 P/C insurers throughout the U.S. AAIS is also a licensed statistical agent operating countrywide to collect premium and loss data for both regulatory compliance and to support the development of loss costs for its affiliated carriers.

Under an initiative announced by AAIS President Paul Baiocchi at the association's recent "Main Event" conference, AAIS is establishing a "Data Resource Center" that will allow its member companies to access its traditional premium and loss data, plus geographic, demographic, weather, crime, and other types of data collected from public and private sources.

In addition, the center will provide AAIS affiliated companies with analytical tools for mining the data and identifying relationships that correspond to risk of loss, and for developing rating variables based on those relationships.

"Data should be an industry resource deployed to maintain a competitive marketplace," said Baiocchi in his announcement at the Main Event, held April 11-13 in Fort Myers, Fla. To that end, Baiocchi urged all carriers to submit their statistical data to AAIS, whose statistical database already has records on $10 billion in annual direct written premium.

"Our industry will benefit from having multiple repositories of ratemaking data," he said, "and the information in the AAIS Data Resources Center will be accessible to all participating companies."

For information on reporting statistical data to AAIS, contact Janice Nieman, director of technical product support, at janicen@AAISonline.com, or by calling 800-564-AAIS, ext. 223.