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The property data firm has united with a satellite specialist to bring a disaster response and monitoring solution to the banking and finance sector.
In this product, CoreLogic’s property data and ICEYE’s hazard insights – which make use of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite data and auxiliary ground data – come together to pinpoint areas and properties affected by floods and bushfires as events unfold.
According to CoreLogic’s head of financial services solutions, Eugene Vassiliev, the banking and finance sector has long been in need of a solution to help them more quickly and effectively identify customers who are at risk of natural disaster impacts.
“Currently, there is no method for banks to accurately identify and help clients who are being impacted by severe weather or natural disasters in near real-time. In most cases, media reports are relied on to identify suburbs or postcodes impacted,” Mr Vassiliev explained.
“This solution is a significant innovation for the entire industry. It seamlessly integrates our extensive property data with daily imagery from ICEYE’s satellites, enabling observation of the extent and impact of natural disasters during major weather events, even through thick smoke or cloud cover,” he said.
The SAR satellite constellation owned and operated by ICEYE, a Finland-based firm, is the world’s largest network, and is capable of providing readings day or night, through clouds, smoke or other obscuring elements. In this model, satellite imagery is combined with ground data from the firm to provide intelligence about surface conditions and any changes that have taken place.
Harnessing this information alongside up-to-date property data will reportedly allow banks to better coordinate their internal disaster response protocols and work to support customers more quickly.
ICEYE global head of partnerships, Paul Barron, said the firm’s satellite technology is able to provide “actionable, high-resolution insights into the unfolding impact of flood and bushfire events across the globe”.
Lenders using the disaster response solution will be able to identify regions to monitor based on their portfolios and receive regular alerts of at-risk or impacted areas on an individual property level.
This will include information like the depth of floodwater inundation and average flood depth estimates on their customers’ properties. In the case of bushfires, lenders will receive information like the number of buildings likely to have been impacted.
The firms are currently working to expand the flood event coverage beyond Australia to New Zealand.
Mr Vassiliev noted that good communication between lenders and customers is integral to maintaining successful relationships during natural disasters.
“Monitoring disaster events as they unfold means banks can provide targeted engagement with affected customers who have a heightened need for clear communication during such events, and better identify, assess and provide hardship cases with access to finance for emergency assistance or rebuild costs.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juliet Helmke
Based in Sydney, Juliet Helmke has a broad range of reporting and editorial experience across the areas of business, technology, entertainment and the arts. She was formerly Senior Editor at The New York Observer.
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