PCS Cyber RLM wins the data solution of the year, because in the words of one of InsuranceERM's judging panel, the "solution filled a gap in the insurance space with respect to data and the use of that data".

PCS Cyber RLM was launched October 2020 as a database of the insurance industry's largest affirmative cyber insurance programmes.

The dataset was developed after PCS conducted market research and found how vulnerable the global cyber re/insurance market was in the large risk category – defined as programmes with at least $100m in limit.

The team discovered almost a quarter of industry premium comes from programmes with at least $200m in limit, and almost half from programmes with at least $100m.

In a market with $5bn in insurance premiums and $2.5bn in reinsurance premiums, it's not hard to see how only a few large risk losses in a cyber catastrophe could wipe out a year's premium that take re/insurers decades to earn back.

"That's why we developed PCS Cyber RLM," says Tom Johansmeyer, head of PCS, a Verisk business. "Not only did we want to call attention to the half of the market where risk was significantly concentrated, we also wanted to help our clients gain access to the data they'd need to understand large cyber risk programmes better and improve risk and capital management decision-making."

Since PCS Cyber RLM went live, PCS says its exposure data has been valuable to users in order to evaluate submissions for the 1 January 2021 reinsurance renewal season.

In addition to expanding the scope of the market that PCS Cyber RLM covers, Johansmeyer says in the year ahead other ways PCS aims to help clients transfer risk include increasing engagement with the insurance-linked securities market.