To assist primary insurers, reinsurers, and reinsurance intermediaries to efficiently utilize detailed exposure information, AIR Worldwide Corporation (AIR) developed the standard data format, UNICEDE. Since its introduction in 1993, the UNICEDE family of data formats has become the industry standard for insurance data exchange.

The UNICEDE family consists of several formats and tools, including:

• UNICEDE/2 format for aggregate exposure data for treaty reinsurance
• UNICEDE/px format for detailed exposure data for primary (direct) insurance
• UNICEDE/fx format for detailed exposure data for facultative reinsurance
• UNICEDECheck, a free online tool that checks UNICEDE and UNICEDE/2 files for errors

All UNICEDE formats have the following common attributes:

• Easy to understand data standards
• Easy to assemble exposure data
• Widely understood, globally accepted, and easy to implement geographic areas used to locate exposures
• Full flexibility as to the type of tool that can create data files, from simple spreadsheets to complex database management systems
• Compact data files that are easy to transmit electronically
• Free reliable web-based resources that provide valuable information to all users — insurers, reinsurers, agents, intermediaries, and modelers — to produce, check and use the UNICEDE data standards