Black Knight Inc. has launched its new Climate and Natural Hazard Risk Data Solutions Suite to help mortgage industry participants, investors and analysts identify properties impacted by natural disasters and mitigate future climate-related risk.
Consisting of integrated data sets and portfolio analytics, but also available as stand-alone offerings, the Climate and Natural Hazard Risk Data Solutions Suite provides property-level insight into both the potential impact of current climate events, as well as gauges and helps users manage the level of climate risk to assets in the future.
“With each passing year, it becomes more apparent that we’ve entered an age of increasingly large, destructive and frequent climate-driven events,” says Ben Graboske, president of Black Knight Data & Analytics. “The impact these events have on life and property can be immense, with damages well into the billions of dollars each time. And the risk they represent to those with a financial stake in the collateral that’s in the path of these events is significant and growing. Mortgage lenders, servicers, investors and many others with a stake in the housing industry have always looked to Black Knight for actionable insights to help them manage risk, and climate risk is certainly no exception.”
The Climate and Natural Hazard Risk Data Solutions Suite combines Black Knight’s vast data and analytics assets with public and private data sets and proprietary risk-scoring algorithms to provide an unmatched look at climate risk, both proactively as well as in the moments immediately following a climate-related event.
The suite includes Disaster Alerts and Climate Risk Scoring Disaster Alerts – the data set behind the Early Warning Suite in the Black Knight Actionable Intelligence Platform (AIP). The solutions use satellite imagery, topographical mapping and other data sets to drill down into impacted areas and pinpoint properties in harm’s way, in many instances before FEMA disaster declarations. By focusing on specific properties that were likely impacted, rather than on county-wide areas of potential activity, Disaster Alerts helps users act both quickly and effectively to protect costs and resources.
The Climate and Natural Hazard Risk Data Solutions Suite complements Disaster Alerts’ point-in-time actionable intelligence with Climate Risk Scoring. Proactively monitoring portfolios of loans, properties, pools or securities, Climate Risk Scoring assesses the climate-related risk characteristics of individual properties and assigns a score to help model for future risk. Leveraging environmental, social and governance (ESG) data from Black Knight, the solutions can also help investors hedge against that risk by identifying agency-certified “green,” (i.e., sustainable) pools of agency-backed mortgage securities for investment.
The solution covers over 95% of residential properties in the United States and is available via the Black Knight Rapid Analytics Platform (RAP), along with many of Black Knight’s other real estate and housing-finance data sets and prepackaged analytics. Individual elements are also offered as stand-alone data and analytics purchases.
“According to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report, the United States saw 20 distinct billion-dollar-plus climate and weather events in 2021, making it the third-most-costly year on record with an estimated $145 billion in damages,” Graboske continues. “Black Knight customers already rely on our unmatched data and analytics offerings to monitor their portfolios for key risk factors, such as loan-to-value ratios, equity and liens. With the Climate and Natural Hazard Risk Data Solutions Suite, we can now also provide a 360-degree view of their climate risk – wherever they stand in the real estate and housing finance continuum.”
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