Compendium

Insurance / Risk / Actuarial Modelling DSLs Family Index

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Insurance / Risk / Actuarial Modelling DSLs Family Index

Insurance / Risk / Actuarial Modelling DSLs — Family Index

Family overview

Insurance / risk / actuarial DSLs are the textual (and quasi-textual) languages used to project insurance liabilities, price cover, reserve for claims, and model catastrophe loss. They split into four roughly disjoint subfamilies. Life-insurance modelling is the largest and most proprietary: FIS Prophet, WTW RiskAgility Financial Modeller (RAFM), Moody’s AXIS (GGY AXIS, acquired in 2020), Milliman Integrate (the cloud successor to MG-ALFA), PolySystems, and a handful of smaller vendors. These products are best understood not as general-purpose programming languages but as spreadsheet-internal expression DSLs — Prophet’s “indicators” + variable formulas, AXIS’s product code, RAFM’s modelling-engine assignments — which look more like Excel formula bars than C++ but are used to manage many trillions of dollars of long-dated liabilities. Lock-in is severe; migrations between Prophet and RAFM are measured in years.

Catastrophe modelling is a duopoly with a long tail: Verisk Extreme Event Solutions (formerly AIR Worldwide, rebranded January 2022) with the Touchstone + Touchstone Re platforms, and Moody’s RMS (acquired by Moody’s in 2021) with the Intelligent Risk Platform (IRP) — Risk Modeler, Exposure IQ, and the legacy RiskLink / RiskBrowser desktop tools (currently RMS Version 22 models). Karen Clark & Company (KCC) RiskInsight is the credible third entrant (v4.15 as of 2025/2026; “high velocity” HV models launched 2025). Each vendor exports exposure data in its own format. The OASIS Loss Modelling Framework (oasislmf.org, ODS/OED) is the only credible open-source alternative — it hosts 300+ models, and Moody’s announced IRP-to-Oasis SaaS connectivity in 2025–2026 effectively legitimising it as the multi-vendor backbone.

Regulatory reporting runs in parallel: Solvency II (EU) reports through the EIOPA DPM and XBRL taxonomies (currently 2.8.2 hotfix, with 2.10.0 in public consultation as of August 2025 and proposed effective date 2026/2027); the US NAIC requires statutory accounting (SAP) blanks and, from 1 January 2026, the Generator of Economic Scenarios (GOES) replacing the older AIRG for VM-20/VM-21/VM-22 reserve and capital models; Lloyd’s of London uses Coverholder Reporting Standards (currently v5.2) and ACORD-Standards-for-Delegated-Authority XML through the Lloyd’s Direct Reporting (LDR) portal. IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts became effective 1 January 2023 and is the single biggest forcing function on the entire family — every legacy actuarial engine had to grow Contractual Service Margin (CSM) bookkeeping, Premium Allocation Approach (PAA) and General Measurement Model (GMM) cash-flow projections, and the associated locked-in/current discount-rate accounting; the UK Endorsement Board’s post-implementation review is due by 1 January 2028.

Open-source actuarial is small but real: R’s ChainLadder, lifecontingencies, and actuar packages cover P&C reserving and life contingencies; Python’s chainladder-python (CAS-supported) mirrors ChainLadder with a pandas/scikit-learn-style API; pyliferisk covers life contingencies; Julia’s ActuaryUtilities.jl and LifeContingencies.jl are nascent. These are mostly used for research, education, and adjunct calculations rather than as the primary projection engine — the vendor lock-in on Prophet / RAFM / AXIS / Integrate is structural, not technical.

In our deep library

None catalogued directly. Insurance/actuarial DSLs are vendor-internal expression languages with no standalone deep-library note — their host platforms (Prophet Model Developer, AXIS, RiskAgility FM, Integrate) sit behind commercial licences and are catalogued only here.

Cross-reference:

  • financial-regulatory — sibling Tier 3 index covers FpML / SWIFT MT and MX (ISO 20022) / MISMO / ACORD-GBL / FIX / Solvency II QRT templates / EIOPA DPM-XBRL / BCBS-239 from the capital-markets and bank-regulatory angle. This note focuses on the modelling-side DSLs; the regulatory-template formats listed below are cross-listed because they are the output side of the actuarial models catalogued here.
  • r — host language for ChainLadder, lifecontingencies, actuar, ChainLadderInRisk, and most P&C reserving research code.
  • python — host language for chainladder-python, pyliferisk, and increasingly for IFRS-17 / Solvency II glue and Oasis-LMF tooling.
  • scientific — MATLAB and Mathematica were historically used in catastrophe-model R&D (hazard-module simulation, vulnerability-curve fitting); much of that work has migrated to Python/Julia since ~2018.
  • api-description — most modern actuarial / cat-model platforms (Touchstone, Moody’s IRP, Integrate) expose OpenAPI/JSON-Schema-described REST APIs in addition to their internal DSLs.
  • notation-spec — Solvency II QRT and EIOPA DPM share formal-model lineage with the metadata/grammar-spec languages catalogued there.

Tier 3 family table — Life-insurance modelling

FormatFirst appearedOriginTypeStatus (2026)URL
FIS Prophet (Insurance Risk Suite — Prophet)1990s (B&W Deloitte)B&W Deloitte → SunGard (acquired 2005) → FIS (acquired SunGard 2015)Workbook-based actuarial DSL with libraries (ALS, ALM, IFRS17, S2); Model Developer (formerly Prophet Professional) plus Prophet Enterprise + Prophet WebDominant in life insurance globally; SaaS-delivered with fortnightly/monthly continuous releases; AI assistant + predictive-analytics modules announced for 2026https://www.fisglobal.com/products/fis-insurance-risk-suite
WTW RiskAgility Financial Modeller (RAFM)Mid-2000s (Towers Watson MoSes successor)Watson Wyatt / Towers Watson → WTW (Willis Towers Watson)Component-based actuarial modelling DSL; assignment-driven product code; new engine reportedly 70x faster (2024–2025) with built-in AI modelling assistantActive, the credible #2 to Prophet; won InsuranceERM Asia-Pacific Actuarial Modelling Solution of the Year 2024https://www.wtwco.com/en-us/solutions/products/riskagility-financial-modeler
Moody’s AXIS (GGY AXIS)1980s (GGY Inc., Toronto)GGY Inc. → acquired by Moody’s Analytics 2020Tabular product-and-cell projection DSL; pricing + valuation + ALM + capital + hedging on a unified data modelActive, integrated into Moody’s Capital Management suite; Q1 2026 roadmap webinar previewed enhancements; supports the NAIC GOES generator from 1 Jan 2026 (VM-20/21/22)https://www.ggy.com/AXIS/
Milliman Integrate (formerly MG-ALFA)MG-ALFA mid-1980s (Milliman); Integrate ~2018MillimanCloud-native actuarial calculation engine; Integrate Base supersedes MG-ALFA’s projection DSLActive; “first actuarial platform in the cloud”; MG-ALFA legacy is being retired in favour of Integratehttps://integrate.milliman.com/en
PolySystems1990sPolySystems Inc. (Chicago)Excel-add-in actuarial projection language; US-life-focusedActive, mid-tier; survives on US-life-and-annuity book of businesshttps://www.polysystems.com/
AON PathWise (Path / TYCHE)PathWise ~2007 (Aon Benfield); TYCHE older general-insurance systemAon Benfield SecuritiesGPU-accelerated stochastic life-insurance / variable-annuity hedging platform; TYCHE is a general-insurance capital/pricing toolActive; PathWise is the GPU-stochastic specialist; TYCHE used heavily in Lloyd’s / London Markethttps://insurance-investment.aon.com/pathwise
Slope Software2010sSlope Software Inc. (US)Cloud-native modern actuarial modelling DSL aimed at unseating Prophet on greenfield deploymentsActive, small but growinghttps://slopesoftware.com/
GGY AXIS (entry preserved for branding history)1980sGGY Inc.Same product as Moody’s AXIS; the ggy.com domain remains the primary documentation portalRenamed Moody’s AXIS post-2020; still widely referred to by the GGY name in the industryhttps://www.ggy.com/

Tier 3 family table — Catastrophe modelling

FormatFirst appearedOriginTypeStatus (2026)URL
Verisk (AIR Worldwide) Touchstone + Touchstone ReTouchstone 2014; AIR Worldwide founded 1987 (Karen Clark)AIR Worldwide → acquired by ISO / Verisk → rebranded Verisk Extreme Event Solutions Jan 2022Cat-model run platform with proprietary CLF (Catastrophe Loss File) and EDM (Exposure Data Module) SQL Server schemasDominant; Verisk Synergy Studio announced as next-gen successor platform for 2026https://www.verisk.com/products/touchstone/
Moody’s RMS Intelligent Risk Platform (IRP) — Risk Modeler, Exposure IQRMS founded 1989 (Stanford); IRP launched ~2021; acquired by Moody’s 2021Risk Management Solutions Inc. → Moody’sCloud-native catastrophe modelling platform; runs RMS HD Models; reportedly 10x faster than legacy RiskLinkDominant alongside Verisk; 2025–2026 integration with OASIS SaaS for multi-vendor model accesshttps://www.moodys.com/web/en/us/who-we-serve/insurance/intelligent-risk-platform/risk-modeler.html
RMS RiskLink + RiskBrowser (legacy)1990sRisk Management SolutionsOn-premises SQL-Server-backed cat-model client; ELT (Event Loss Table), YLT (Year Loss Table), RDM/EDM SQL schemasMaintained; current Version 22 models released for both on-prem RiskLink and the cloud IRP; long-term migration path is to Risk Modelerhttps://www.moodys.com/web/en/us/insights/insurance/rms-risklink-and-riskbrowser-with-version-22.html
Karen Clark & Company (KCC) RiskInsight2012Karen Clark & Co (Karen Clark, AIR co-founder)Open-platform cat model; CEDE-format exposure data; user-extensibleActive, v4.15 released 2025; new “High Velocity” (HV) models for hurricane + SCS launched 2025https://www.karenclarkandco.com/riskinsight
OASIS Loss Modelling Framework (oasislmf)2012 (Oasis LMF Ltd., London)Lloyd’s / industry consortiumOpen-source catastrophe-modelling platform; runs 300+ third-party models via standard ODS/OED inputs; Python + C kernelActive, growing; Moody’s IRP integration announced 2025–2026 elevates it from niche to credible multi-vendor backbonehttps://oasislmf.org/
OED — Open Exposure DataProperty OED ~2017; Liability OED Apr 2022; Cyber OED Feb 2023Oasis ODS Steering CommitteeOpen, CSV/SQL-friendly exposure data standard covering property, liability, and cyber linesActive; PERILS Industry Exposure Database (IED) now publishes in OED (announced 2024–2025)https://oasislmf.github.io/sections/OED.html
RMS EDM / RDM schemas1990sRMSSQL Server schemas: Exposure Data Module (EDM) for portfolios, Results Data Module (RDM) for ELT/YLT outputsLegacy but ubiquitous; the de facto exchange format alongside CLF/EDM in the Verisk camphttps://developer.rms.com/

Tier 3 family table — Open-source actuarial

FormatFirst appearedOriginTypeStatus (2026)URL
R ChainLadder2007Markus Gesmann et al.; CRANR package: Mack, Bornhuetter-Ferguson, GLM, bootstrap chain-ladder for P&C reservingActive; the reference open-source reserving toolkithttps://mages.github.io/ChainLadder/
R lifecontingencies2011Giorgio Spedicato; CRANR package: actuarial mathematics for life contingencies, annuities, insuranceActivehttps://cran.r-project.org/package=lifecontingencies
R actuar2005Vincent Goulet et al.; CRANR package: loss distributions, ruin theory, simulation, credibilityActivehttps://cran.r-project.org/package=actuar
Python chainladder-python2017John Bogaardt; CAS Open Source RepositoryPython port of R ChainLadder with pandas + scikit-learn idioms; CAS-supportedActive; v0.8.x; promoted by CAS E-Forum practitioner guideshttps://github.com/casact/chainladder-python
Python pyliferisk~2015Francisco Garate; PyPIPython life-contingencies + mortality-table libraryMaintained; small but stablehttps://github.com/franciscogarate/pyliferisk

Tier 3 family table — Regulatory / reporting

FormatFirst appearedOriginTypeStatus (2026)URL
Solvency II QRTs + EIOPA DPM XBRL taxonomySolvency II in force 1 Jan 2016; DPM 2.x ongoingEIOPA (European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority)Data Point Model (DPM) → XBRL taxonomy for Quantitative Reporting Templates (QRTs)Active: current taxonomy 2.8.2 (hotfix); 2.10.0 in public-working-draft consultation since Aug 2025, effective date proposed 31 Dec 2026 or 30 Jan 2027; 2025 annual QRTs due 8 Apr 2026 (also cross-listed in financial-regulatory)https://www.eiopa.europa.eu/tools-and-data/supervisory-reporting-dpm-and-xbrl_en
IFRS 17 reporting templatesEffective 1 Jan 2023IASB (International Accounting Standards Board)Insurance-contracts accounting standard; CSM + PAA + GMM cash-flow projections; vendor-implemented in Prophet, RAFM, AXIS, IntegrateActive and mandatory; UK Endorsement Board post-implementation review due by 1 Jan 2028https://www.ifrs.org/issued-standards/list-of-standards/ifrs-17-insurance-contracts/
NAIC SAP / Valuation Manual + GOESSAP from 2001 (NAIC Statutory codification); GOES adopted Aug 2025, effective 1 Jan 2026National Association of Insurance Commissioners (US)Statutory blanks + VM-20 (life PBR), VM-21 (variable annuities), VM-22 (non-variable annuities); GOES is the new economic-scenario generator replacing AIRGActive; 2026 Valuation Manual mandates GOES from 1 Jan 2026https://content.naic.org/cipr-topics/principle-based-reserving-pbr
Lloyd’s Coverholder Reporting Standards + ACORD Delegated Authority XMLLloyd’s CRS v4 (2015), current v5.2 (Aug 2019); ACORD DA standards ongoingLloyd’s of London + ACORDXML-message standard for coverholder bordereau (premium + claims + risk) reporting via Lloyd’s Direct Reporting (LDR)Active; monthly CMR-portal submission windows; ACORD-Standards-for-Delegated-Authority remains the canonical schemahttps://www.lloyds.com/market-resources/delegated-authorities/market-knowledge/reporting-standards
OSFI MCT / LICAT (Canada)LICAT effective 2018 (life); MCT for P&C since 2003Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (Canada)Capital-adequacy ratio reporting templates; spreadsheet + XBRL-lightActivehttps://www.osfi-bsif.gc.ca/en/data-forms/regulatory-reporting/insurance-returns
APRA reporting (LRS / GRS)Various since 2000sAustralian Prudential Regulation AuthorityXBRL-based capital + balance-sheet templates for life (LRS) and general (GRS) insurersActive, ongoing taxonomy updateshttps://www.apra.gov.au/reporting-standards-life-and-general-insurers
TFS (Triangle File System) — loss-development trianglesConvention since 1980sIndustry convention (CAS)Tabular cumulative or incremental loss-by-origin-and-development format; no formal grammar but ubiquitous CSV layoutActive as a de facto convention; first-class data type in R ChainLadder and Python chainladder-pythonhttps://chainladder-python.readthedocs.io/en/latest/intro.html

Notable threads

  • FIS Prophet’s market dominance and the cost of incumbency. Prophet (originally B&W Deloitte → SunGard → FIS, with the Insurance Risk Suite branding from ~2018) is the de facto standard for life-insurance modelling globally and the single largest piece of vendor lock-in in the actuarial world. The Prophet “library” (ALS, ALM, IFRS 17 Library, Solvency II Library) ships pre-built product code that takes years to replicate elsewhere; FIS’s move to fortnightly/monthly continuous SaaS releases (2024–2026) ratchets that lock-in further by removing the upgrade-cycle window where customers might switch vendors. The 2026 AI-assistant + predictive-analytics modules are explicitly aimed at extending stickiness rather than opening interoperability.

  • Moody’s acquisition spree consolidated the alternative-vendor tier. Moody’s bought RMS in September 2021 (cat modelling) and GGY (AXIS) in 2020 (life modelling), then built the Intelligent Risk Platform around both. The strategic intent is plain: a one-stop insurance-risk vendor competing on breadth against FIS (life) and Verisk (cat) separately. By 2025–2026 Moody’s also announced IRP-to-Oasis-SaaS connectivity, effectively co-opting the open-source alternative as a multi-vendor backbone rather than a competitor. WTW (RAFM) and Milliman (Integrate, formerly MG-ALFA) remain the credible holdouts.

  • OASIS Loss Modelling Framework is the only credible open alternative — and it just got legitimised. Oasis LMF (Lloyd’s-backed consortium, 2012) provides an open Python-based runtime for catastrophe models with the ODS (Open Data Standards) and OED (Open Exposure Data) formats as the interchange layer. OED for liability shipped April 2022, OED for cyber in February 2023, and PERILS published its Industry Exposure Database in OED in 2024–2025. Moody’s IRP-to-Oasis SaaS integration in 2025–2026 was the inflection point: a top-two vendor publicly endorsed the open standard as a model-aggregation layer. That is the first real crack in the cat-model duopoly’s data-format moat in 30 years.

  • IFRS 17 (effective 1 January 2023) broke every legacy actuarial engine, and the cleanup is still happening in 2026. The Contractual Service Margin (CSM) plus locked-in vs current discount rate accounting plus the General Measurement Model (GMM) / Premium Allocation Approach (PAA) / Variable Fee Approach (VFA) split forced every vendor (Prophet, RAFM, AXIS, Integrate, PolySystems) to ship IFRS 17 libraries and gave consultancies (Finalyse, KPMG, EY actuarial) a multi-year implementation business. The UK Endorsement Board’s post-implementation review is not due until 1 January 2028, so the standard’s lived-with effects on capital reporting are still being learned. Many insurers reportedly still run parallel IFRS 4 / IFRS 17 books in shadow because the migration is incomplete.

  • Verisk vs Moody’s RMS as the catastrophe-model duopoly, with KCC as the third entrant. Verisk Extreme Event Solutions (Touchstone + Touchstone Re; the AIR Worldwide brand was retired January 2022) and Moody’s RMS (Intelligent Risk Platform; Risk Modeler + Exposure IQ; legacy RiskLink/RiskBrowser at Version 22) together cover roughly the entire primary-insurer and reinsurer book. KCC RiskInsight (v4.15, with 2025-launched “High Velocity” models) and OASIS LMF are the credible alternatives. The format moat is exposure-data lock-in: AIR’s CLF/EDM SQL Server schemas vs RMS’s EDM/RDM SQL Server schemas vs KCC’s CEDE format vs OED. Verisk’s announced Synergy Studio (2026) signals a forthcoming generational rewrite.

  • The Solvency II QRT / EIOPA-DPM-XBRL ecosystem is the most formalised regulatory reporting in insurance. EIOPA publishes the Data Point Model (DPM) — a metadata-level relational description of every reportable cell — and generates from it an XBRL taxonomy that solos and groups consume. The 2.8.x taxonomy is in force for 2025 annual reporting (due 8 April 2026 for solos), and a 2.10.0 public working draft has been in consultation since August 2025 with effective date proposed 31 December 2026 or 30 January 2027. Compare this with the looser US NAIC blanks tradition; the contrast is the same EU-vs-US regulatory-data divide visible in financial-regulatory (BCBS-239, FINREP/COREP).

  • The slow Python/R/Julia drift. Despite Prophet/RAFM/AXIS/Integrate dominance, the open-source tail has grown enough that secondary actuarial work (validation, IFRS 17 disclosure, reserving research, GLM pricing) is increasingly done in R (ChainLadder, lifecontingencies, actuar) and Python (chainladder-python, pyliferisk). The primary projection engine is still proprietary because the lock-in cost is too high to migrate; the secondary toolchain has gone open largely because the consulting firms that build it (CAS, SOA, individual practitioners) cannot afford per-seat Prophet licences and because IFRS 17 disclosure has too many bespoke calculations to fit cleanly inside any vendor library.

Citations

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