Digital Platforms

Washington, D.C. - The Federal Emergency Management Association's National Flood Insurance Program has launched a Web site to provide educational materials and other new content to insurance agents.

London -- Companies that outsource their IT systems are increasing their potential vulnerability to security breaches causing possible long term damage to their business, according to London-based insurer ACE European Group Ltd. (ACE).ACE has uncovered a lack of awareness among many European businesses of the increasing risks that outsourcing poses to their networks. ACE is also aware that there is a degree of uncertainty among many businesses, both as to the level of protection given to their computer systems and the cover provided by their existing insurance policies.

Cupertino, Calif. - Software security provider Symantec announced today that it completed its acquisition of Houston-based BindView Development Corp., a provider of agent-less IT security compliance software.

Hartford, Conn. - The dominant position of large market leaders, the effects of burgeoning technology and a robust, competitive pricing environment will cause dozens of insurers to exit the personal P & C industry over the next few years, according to a new study by Conning Research and Consulting Inc., a Hartford, Conn. provider of public and proprietary research as well as consulting services to the financial services industry.

New York -- Guy Carpenter & Company Inc., a global risk and reinsurance specialist and a part of the Marsh & McLennan Cos., has published U.S. Reinsurance Renewals at January 1, 2006.This annual review of pricing, retentions and limits, capacity and terms and conditions covers the property, casualty, marine and offshore energy, accident and health and life and annuity lines of business.

Stamford, Conn.- Following a period of cost cutting and reactive spending, insurance organizations with more than $1 billion in revenue will be even more cautious when making their IT spending decisions in 2006, according to Gartner Consulting's Worldwide IT Benchmark Service.

Boston - A winter storm model for the U.S. that captures the effects of wind, precipitation, and freezing temperatures on insured properties should help insurance companies assess winter storm risk, according to AIR Worldwide Corp. (AIR), a Boston-based member of the ISO family of companies.

Newark, Calif. -- Risk Management Solutions (RMS) recently performed a number of analyses for the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to assess the absolute risk of terrorism and quantify how the terms of the December 2005 renewal of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) would shift the relative share of the risk from the government to the insurance industry.RMS analysis shows that while TRIA provides solvency protection in extreme events, it is not an insurance industry subsidy. Based on the new TRIA terms, over 90% of the RMS modeled average annual loss would be retained by the industry. If an attack occurred, there is also less than a 10% chance that it would cause the industry deductible to be reached, since only the most extreme, low-probability attacks will cause losses in excess of $30 billion. For example, the 2001 World Trade Center attacks resulted in approximately $32.5 billion of insured losses. Were an event of this magnitude to occur today, it would thus produce only a minimal TRIA recovery for the insurance industry.

Indianapolis - At least six states are likely to advance rate modernization initiatives this year, a legislative preview prepared by the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) reveals.

Los Angeles - A testament to its commitment to successful client relationships, Transamerica Retirement Services has received six "Best in Class" ratings from the Chatham Partners' 2005 Client Satisfaction Analysis.Transamerica received "Best in Class" ratings in the following areas: timeliness of contributions, distributions and loans, accuracy of contributions, overall satisfaction with processing of employee transactions, accuracy of participant statements, clarity of participant statements, and courtesy and professionalism of SponsorConnect personnel.

LOMA, the Atlanta-based trade association to the insurance and financial services industry, has launched LOMALearn Online, an e-learning portal for individual and corporate training. Powered by Dublin, Ireland-based WBT System's TopClass e-Learning Suite, the site has been redesigned to manage and deliver content, training, and certification to LOMA's 1,200 member companies and other customers in more than 80 countries. The system will also enable LOMA to provide its members and customers with privately branded online learning sites through an application service provider model.

After an agency selection process that spanned several months, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., has selected New York-based CooperKatz & Co. to promote a national public education program focused on teaching consumers how to select the right type of insurance coverage to fit their needs and how to protect themselves from buying worthless policies from fake insurance companies. In September, the NAIC launched an online fraud reporting system, where insurance companies and consumers can report suspected insurance fraud.

Brainshark, A Waltham, Mass.-based provider of on-demand content solutions, has integrated its software with Agility, a relationship management application from G2X Inc., New York. The integration is designed to help insurance carriers communicate with their sales channels and contacts, all from within the same customer relationship management (CRM) system. By integrating G2X Agility with on-demand content created using Brainshark, insurance wholesalers, retailers and clients already using G2X are now able to, from within a contact record, select, personalize, and send a rich-media presentation created by their marketing group. When a client views the presentation, the right person will immediately receive an Alert in the Agility dashboard, informing them that the client or partner has viewed the presentation, enabling prompt followup.

AIM Technology, a San Francisco-based provider of operational performance management software, has become a member of the Avaya DeveloperConnection program, offered by Avaya Inc., Basking Ridge, N.J. AIM Technology develops AIMCall, an application suite designed to optimize the operational performance of call centers. AIMCall's data analytics tool and workflow and notification capabilities augment Avaya's Call Management System, an application that enables companies to monitor and analyze the performance of contact centers.

Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv Inc. has acquired Xcipio Inc., an East Windsor, Conn.-based Web-based insurance rating and automation solution provider. The acquisition is part of Fiserv's plan to expand its technological footprint in the insurance industry.

LAW FIRM LAUNCHES HURRICANE WEBLOGMcGlinchey Stafford PLLC, a law firm based New Orleans, has launched an online resource for companies with business interests in hurricane-affected areas. The blog, found at www.hurricanelawblog.com, features up-to-date information about post-hurricane legal issues, including insurance, real estate, healthcare, environmental, finance and litigation. The Hurricane Law Blog also offers insurance brokers, finance and real estate professionals and attorneys a recovery resource center and legal articles.

POLICY ADMINISTRATIONTwo insurance companies have chosen the same vendor for their commercial lines policy administration systems. Secura Insurance, Appleton, Wis., is implementing policy administration, integration and self-maintenance software from AQS Inc., Hartland, Wis. Secura will use the AQS/Advantage Suite for its commercial lines to streamline the underwriting processes and turn around new business and renewals more quickly. Capital Insurance Group, Monterey, Calif., is moving off its AQS legacy commercial policy administration to AQS' Web-centric policy administration solution. CIG will provide its 340 independent agents across the Western United States with the AQS/Advantage Suite.

FIRSTLOGIC, PITNEY MERGER CALLED OFFFirstlogic Inc., a La Crosse, Wis.-based provider of enterprise information quality solutions, and Pitney Bowes Inc., Lanham, Md., have agreed not to extend their merger agreement. This concludes Pitney's planned acquisition of Firstlogic, which had been publicly announced in September. After reviewing the second request for information issued by the Federal Trade Commission, the two companies decided not to proceed further with the acquisition, according to Eric Lieberman, president of Firstlogic.

Boston - Under an amended Terrorism Risk Insurance Extension Act (TRIA) law, insurance companies' loss retention will grow incrementally over the next two years, but will vary depending on the severity, location and timing of any future attack and on an individual insurer's actual book of business, according to AIR Worldwide Corp., (AIR). The Boston-based risk modeling company, which helps insurance companies manage the financial impact of catastrophes and weather, conducted an analysis of TRIA's potential impact on insurers. The Act was signed into law last week and extends the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRIA) through the end of 2007.

Jersey City, N.J. - With insurers still calculating their losses from a year of catastrophic events, the U.S. P & C industry's net income after taxes rose 4.4%, or $1.2 billion, to $28.8 billion in nine-months 2005 from $27.6 billion in nine-months 2004.

Jersey City, N.J. - The Terrorism Risk Insurance Extension Act of 2005, signed into law by President Bush, does not contain revisions that would affect insurers' use of a portfolio of terrorism insurance tools, endorsements and related rules from ISO, a New Jersey-based risk management services provider.

Columbus, Ohio -- Nationwide Financial Services Inc. has moved its personal investor account information and educational resources to nationwide.com. Now, all of these resources and planning tools can be accessed from one central location. The move introduces a new look, increased speed, streamlined navigation and information written in easier-to-understand terms.Besides changing bookmarks to nationwide.com, the Investor Service Center, an online source for account information and transactions, has undergone some recent improvements to provide a better experience including enhanced privacy protections,

Newark, Calif. - Citing its latest win, catastrophe modeling is becoming increasingly important throughout financial markets, according to Risk Management Solutions (RMS), a Calif.-based provider of products and services for the management of catastrophe risk.

Washington, D.C. - The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) has launched a new Web tool linking consumers with Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans offering Medicare products in their local communities.In 2006, 29 Blue Plans will sponsor Medicare Advantage products and 24 Blue Plans will sponsor Medicare Prescription Drug Plans.The Medicare Blue PlanFinder is designed to help consumers navigate the complex maze of Medicare offerings. The tool can be accessed by going to www.bcbs.com and clicking on "The Blues and Medicare."

Hartford, Conn. - "Convergence products" will play a critical part in the competitive landscape of the property-casualty industry in coming years despite being a relatively small segment, according to a new study by Conning Research and Consulting, Inc., Hartford, Conn.

Blue Bell, Pa. - The PMA Insurance Group, a property casualty insurer specializing in workers' compensation, is achieving high levels of client satisfaction with its services, according to the results of a recent survey.According to the survey of its clients conducted by an independent opinion research consultant, 95% of clients responded that PMA has exceeded, fully met, or generally met their service expectations.

New York - Ernst & Young's Insurance and Actuarial Advisory Services (IAAS) practice today released highlights from its recent Risk Leadership Roundtable. The company gathered senior insurance industry executives to share preliminary results of its new "Insurance Industry Risk Leadership" survey.The roundtable included chief risk officers, risk managers and actuaries from the top 30 U.S. life/health and property/casualty insurance organizations. The Ernst & Young 2005 Insurance Industry Risk Leadership survey covers the current state and future plans of insurers with respect to enterprise risk management (ERM).

Des Moines, Iowa - The Principal Financial Group has launched an online claim submission form for group long-term and short-term disability customers."Even a brief disability can be difficult to overcome, which is why we stress early intervention and ongoing claim communication throughout the process," says Cindy Ford, claims director, the Principal Financial Group. "Offering online submission is simply one more way we can expedite the process to ensure the best possible outcome for our members."

Hartford, Conn. - Six months after introducing its enhanced Select Accounts products for small businesses, St. Paul Travelers reports the feedback from independent agents has been overwhelmingly positive.According to a survey of more than 1,300 agents, 96% rated the breadth of product eligibility and 88% rated the pricing and coverage features to be the same or significantly better than the competition.

St. Paul, Minn. -- A study of insurance brokers and consultants' attitudes about relationships with group life insurers shows they place high value on technology and good service and little value on freebies."The study confirmed our assumptions about how best to approach benefits brokers and consultants," says Paula Bilitz, marketing manager, Minnesota Life Group Insurance. "Professionalism rules, with a clear focus on how best to serve the employer-client."

Cheshire, Conn. - Chicago-based Aon Consulting has set its sights on beefing up the real-time health claims data it delivers to its customers.

Beijing - InsCom, an e-commerce insurance company based in China, has been awarded as one of China's Top 100 Business Web sites of 2005 at the second awards ceremony of the China Commercial Internet Developing Conference. In the five years of the top 100 business Web site award, this is the first time an insurance Web site has won.Rapid development of the insurance industry has led to diversities in the insurance marketing channel. Some traditional channels such as: direct sales, full-time or part-time agents, telephone, correspondence and networking are seeing new changes being gradually introduced in order to modernise roles in product sales and business development for insurance companies.

Indianapolis - When the Market Regulation & Consumer Affairs Committee at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' (NAIC) agreed to do no further work on a model law regulating the use of claims databases for underwriting purposes, the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), Indianapolis, praised the decision. The decision by NAIC was made at the organization's winter meeting last week in Chicago

Boston - Following the release of a detailed China earthquake model earlier this year, Boston-based AIR Worldwide Corp. (AIR) and ISO, Jersey City, N.J., plan to open a Beijing Representative Office in China.

Sterling, Va.- The popular best practice initiative called the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) has become even more popular among financial institutions driven by service quality and a need to align IT with larger business objectives, according to Evergreen Systems, an IT technology and process consulting firm. ITIL is non-proprietary approach for managing IT that helps make business sense of tools, standards and processes. Evergreen released the results of an assessment survey of IT managers and executives, conducted at the IT Service Management forum (itSMF) conference in late September.

Atlanta, Ga. - The fact that the USA Patriot Act requires that all entities defined as financial institutions for Bank Secrecy Act purposes establish anti-money laundering programs has not been lost on LOMA, an Atlanta-based insurance and financial services industry trade association. The group is releasing an online anti-money laundering (AML) course on LOMALearn Online-LOMA's growing e-Learning portal.

Columbus, Ohio - Nationwide introduced a new look and feel for its main consumer web site, nationwide.com. The re-design represents the first phase of a multi-year overhaul, the company reports.

Westlake Village, Calif. - The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has been recognized for call center operation customer satisfaction excellence under the J.D. Power and Associates Certified Call Center Program. The Hartford property and casualty sales and service centers are the first in the insurance industry to be certified under the program.Through its direct personal lines business, the Hartford, Conn.-based carrier handled more than 10,000,000 telephone, e-mail and fax interactions in 2004 from its call centers in Southington, Conn., Allentown, Pa., Santee, Calif., and Oklahoma City.

Chicago, Ill. - If revisions to the Model Audit Rule, formally known as the Model Regulation Requiring Annual Audited Financial Reports, are passed, insurance companies with more than $500 million in direct and assumed premiums will be required to perform an annual assessment of their internal controls that apply to financial reporting.

Washington, D.C. - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill extending a federal program that guarantees the government's support of some losses from terrorist attacks, a measure that insurers and property owners call critical to the economy.

Stamford, Ct. - The lack of IT budget and resources, and perceived higher priorities for spending elsewhere will no longer be a barrier for P & C carriers making major investments in claims technologies, according to a report released today from Gartner, a Stamford, Ct. research firm. In fact, tight profit margins and high operational costs, as well as consumer demands for quality service, are now driving insurers to address these problems, says the report's author, Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, who predicts that claims technology and process improvement projects will increase by more than 20 percent in 2006 among P&C insurers.

Chicago - Blue Cross Blue Shield's vision for rounding out its consumer-driven products initiative took a giant leap forward today with the announcement of a new bank to help BCBS companies provide its customers with more technical tools and greater financial options to manage how they direct their healthcare spending.

Using the right analytic tools to analyze and manage terrorism risk is paramount, according to a review of methodologies available for insurers and reinsurers published by Boston-based AIR Worldwide Corp., a risk management division of ISO, Jersey City, N.J.

They began in the late 1990s as personal Web sites for hobbyist-authors to climb on their soapboxes, voice their opinions and reveal their daily activities to the whole wide world. Today, there are more than 17 million "blogs"-short for weblogs-and they're making their way into the business world, including the world of insurance."Weblogs have such a strong appeal to Web users," says Julie Ferguson, a communications consultant for Lynch, Ryan & Associates, a Westborough, Mass.-based workers' compensation consulting firm. "They're an important source of information, and if companies do them right, they speak with a more authentic voice than other forms of communication."

Since 2000, when the Gramm-Leach-Bliley bill made it possible for banks to enter the insurance business, the selling world has seen an invasion of financial institutions, such as Wachovia and BB&T, who have bought insurance agencies or created their own to sell life, disability and other products.Now, the insurance industry seems to believe that turnabout is fair play. In addition to a number of insurance companies, including MetLife, State Farm and Allstate, that created their own banks several years ago, one firm, InBank, is going so far as to offer insurance companies "private-label banking," which executives say allows insurers to sell banking products without the attendant capital costs and regulatory responsibility.

Although insurance carriers have been slower than banks in adopting e-billing and e-payment technologies (see "Carriers Have Some Catching Up to Do), two insurers recently have taken a lead in this area.Esurance, a San Francisco-based direct-to-consumer auto insurer, has added a PayPal payment option to its Web site. PayPal is one of the leading forms of online payment, with approximately 79 million accounts worldwide.

As wildfires scorched California's Los Angeles and Ventura counties in October, thousands of firefighters tried desperately to extinguish the flames that-fanned by dry winds-threatened to spread.Homeowners weren't the only ones following the spiraling fires with concern, as insurers, too, have seen how once seemingly safe urban areas are now vulnerable.

All financial institutions are faced with a basic business question: What is the best use of available funds? Historically, within the insurance industry, this issue of capital allocation has been addressed using some very basic projections of future balance sheets and profit-and-loss statements, with capital projections based on regulatory capital requirements.Global insurers-as well as regulators and rating agencies-are warming to the principle that capital requirements should be based on an assessment of the true underlying risks to the business. Only then can a proper decision be made as to whether one strategic option may be better than another. Without such an analysis, a company might adopt a particular strategy that, over time, eats away at capital and results in a very inefficient use of available funds.

By converting from paper to e-billing, companies can reap appreciable cost savings, achieve significant efficiencies, hasten incoming payments, gain greater accuracy in accounting and invoicing systems, and reduce labor operations.But only a relatively few carriers have thus far converted to e-billing, also known as Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP).

The debate in the industry over an optional federal charter for insurance companies has been brewing for several years. But now, there are some numbers that attest to the value of a single federal regulator-at least for the life insurance sector.More than $250 million, or 55% of all regulatory costs, are directly related to addressing the requirements of multiple regulatory jurisdictions, according to a recent study conducted by the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), Washington, D.C., and El Segundo, Calif.-based Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC). A majority of respondents to the ACLI/CSC survey indicated their companies had lost premium (73%) and deferred or shelved products (83%) as a result of delays in the state-by-state approval process. What's more, nearly every aspect of a life insurer's delivery system is affected by regulatory costs-from designing new products to paying claims.

Washington, D. C. - Health insurance plans are advancing information technology (IT) on many fronts, and in the process are achieving impressive results in health care quality, service, cost, and efficiency, according to a report issued by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), a Washington, D.C., national trade association. "Innovations in Health Information Technology" profiles more than 40 innovations in the use of health IT that address a variety of healthcare system needs with effective new solutions.

Kansas City, Mo. - Representatives of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the United States Department of Treasury will be attending the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Winter National Meeting in Chicago during the Antifraud Task Force meeting on Monday, December 5, to present two final rules that will affect certain insurance companies.