CSFI has been spotlighted in Best’s Review’s January edition, a monthly insurance industry publication from AM Best.  AM Best is the largest credit rating agency in the world.  Best’s Review’s new “Effecting Change” series highlights the work of coalitions like CSFI and nonprofit organizations like the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) and the Insurance Research Council (IRC).

In the piece, “CSFI Continues Grassroots Fight for Flood Insurance Reform,” Best’s Review writes about CSFI’s founding by GNO, Inc. in 2013 and recent work to educate stakeholders about Risk Rating 2.0.  CSFI highlighted its members’ transparency and accuracy concerns.

Michael Hecht, President & CEO of GNO, Inc., recounted that “After Sandy swamped Wall Street and flooded the subway, we suddenly had New York and New Jersey on our side.  That gave us the political heft that led to the Homeowners Flood Insurance Act of 2014.”  However, “that was seen as a victory, but it was really just getting us back to a baseline.”

Best’s Review previewed CSFI’s NatCat Working Group, which is exploring multi-peril programs that build upon NFIP and its comprehensive risk management legacy.  Hecht said that these program options could “take the pool of people who have flood from under 5 million to over 80 million.”

Hecth continued, “We’re parallel tracking.  Just because we’re looking for the all-perils solution doesn’t mean we’re abandoning reauthorizing long term and fixing the NFIP.”

Earlier in January, CSFI released its white paper  – “Policy Options for a Natural Catastrophe Insurance Program – and its executive summary.