Digital Platforms

Reinsurers look to new opportunities for growth as buyers remain tepid.

Island Insurance has selected Guidewire PolicyCenter to replace its underwriting and policy administration solutions. The initial rollout of PolicyCenter will serve Island Insurance’s commercial auto business and eventually will be deployed for all personal and commercial lines.

As the technology has matured, so have the marketing messages supporting it.

New report indicates that the portion of the typical IT budget—in a number of industries, insurance included—allocated to outsourcing is up nearly 23 percent.

The life and health insurer expects increased productivity and greater flexibility to enable increased scalability and forecasting capabilities.

The insurance industry uses just 20 percent of mobile apps' potential, research firm says. However a few insurers are doing it right.

The branchless bank is combining retail banking, retirement and insurance services in its online banking site.

As Costa Rica sends rescue teams to an area hit yesterday by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake, risk modelers have more natural catastrophe data to contend with: flood loss. Flood losses are on a rapid upswing, according to a report issued today by Swiss Re. Affecting an estimated 500 million people worldwide annually, the increase in flood-related claims has been significant, notes Swiss Re’s new report, “Flood - an Underestimated Risk: Inspect, Inform, Insure.”

Data and cloud continue to pave the way to profitable initiatives such as telematics and customer management.

American International Group Inc., the bailed-out U.S. insurer, is raising as much as $2 billion selling a stake in AIA Group Ltd. as Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche accumulates funds to repurchase his company’s stock from the Treasury Department. AIG is offering about 600 million AIA shares at HK$25.75 to HK$26.75, according to a term sheet obtained by Bloomberg News. AIG plans to spend as much $5 billion buying back its shares, it said in a statement released via Business Wire.

CNA Financial Corp. has named Cheryl Paton as the assistant VP for umbrella teams, and Andy Cohen as the VP of field operations.

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. will use Guidewire PolicyCenter as its underwriting and policy administration system and Guidewire BillingCenter for its P&C insurance lines. Nationwide Mutual already is in the process of deploying Guidewire ClaimCenter for claims handling for all P&C lines of business.

SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc., a software and services provider, has launched CAMRA I-Risk for insurance companies to address emerging solvency standards by combining CAMRA’s financial reporting capabilities with a position-based stochastic simulation model.

WellPoint Inc., the second-biggest U.S. health insurer, is planning a four-part debt offering to help fund its $4.9 billion acquisition of Amerigroup Corp. The operator of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance plans may sell three-, five-, 10- and 30- year notes as soon as today, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

Long-term care insurance decisions are not being made only by the elderly, according to a new report. A study conducted by the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance notes that the youngest claimant was 24 years old when he began receiving benefit payments from his long-term care insurance policy. Now in his seventh year of receiving payments, the coverage was purchased when the claimant was 21 years old.

Results of a Towers Watson survey of risk calibrations being used for specific market and non-market risks, revealed that the largest challenges still include interest rates, credit spreads and mortality and lapse assumptions, with up to two-thirds of firms still looking to make considerable progress in these areas.

Munich Re, Swiss Re and Allianz among A.M. Best’s review and ranking of the top 50 reinsurers based on gross premiums written.

Mobile usage-based solutions offer choices designed to provide customer-centric data, feedback.

As businesses in the Gulf Coast are finding out again, having a disaster recovery plan is critical to a business’ survival. According to the “Gulf Coast Back to Business Act (2007),” 43 percent of businesses that close after a natural disaster never reopen, and an additional 29 percent permanently close within two years. However, in the wake of the ongoing financial crisis, many disaster recovery plans are now out of date, says Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates.

IT contractor hiring is on the rise; researchers say forecasting the hiring of experts is a “net positive."

Poll results reveal that majority of Americans connect life insurance to feelings of security, yet don’t fully understand how such a vehicle can help meet long-term financial goals.

Bidders including Manulife Financial Corp. have expressed willingness to buy the Japanese operations as part of a deal for ING units in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the process is private.

Zurich Insurance Group AG, the biggest Swiss insurer, is seeking more licenses to expand in Chinese cities as part of a strategy to grow in emerging markets, chief executive officer Martin Senn said.

A group of Russian insurers have signed an agreement to implement ACORD standards. This will be the first documented ACORD implementation in Eastern Europe.

BMS Group, an independent specialist broker, has chosen Eclipse Broking software from Sequel Business Solutions Ltd., to replace its insurance and reinsurance broking systems in London, the United States and Bermuda. The implementation will go live this year.

EQECAT's early estimates surrounding Isaac draw comparisons to Hurricanes Gustav and Florence.

According to a new report from Gartner, cloud and consumerization present a unique challenge for all businesses moving forward.

The U.S. Census Bureau released 2010 health insurance data; Texas retains the highest rate of uninsureds for the fifth year in a row.

Insurer turns to Clearwater Analytics for scalable solution that can provide improved investment accounting and reporting, analytics.

Latest Allstate report ranks the nation’s largest 200 cities based on the frequency of auto collision claims.

Latest Allstate report ranks the nation’s largest 200 cities based on the frequency of auto collision claims.

As Hurricane Isaac strikes, A.M. Best provides the top ten P&C insurers by market share in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.

LIMRA announces sales survey results for the first half of 2012.

Women's portion of total number of claims continues to climb as well.

Agency management solution designed to extract data from PDF forms and connect agents to carriers.

AIR Worldwide, a catastrophe modeling firm, estimates that losses resulting from farmer claims for the crop insurance industry may exceed $13 billion with the potential to reach as high as $20 billion.

Awareness of the dangers of distracted driving appears to be increasing, but teens are not adjusting their behavior behind the wheel.

Sterne Agee slightly upgrades EPS estimates for life insurers, anticipates higher reserve requirements for universal life.

Survey finds generational differences in communications preferences, urges multi-channel delivery.

Insurers wait for the inevitable landfall of what could become a Category 2 hurricane. According to CoreLogic, this leaves insurers with $36 billion in potential exposure to residential property damage to brace for. This high estimate is largely the result of remaining uncertainties. While estimates have the storm moving onto land within the next 48 hours, where it will strike is still unknown.

Combined ratios are down more than 10 percent compared to 2011 figures, Fitch finds.

Insurers looks to iPipeline’s Content Partner and iGO eApp for improved distribution of life and annuity products.

While not yet a hurricane and still days away from landfall, Tropical Storm Isaac now poses a threat to the Republican National Convention, scheduled to begin on Tuesday in Tampa.

Insurer turns to software firm for improved investment accounting, reporting and analytics solution.

The federal bank is selling off the last $3.4 billion of its Maiden Lane III LLC portfolio, ending its four-year bailout of the insurer.

Rating agency predicts positive rest of the year despite the slight deterioration of interest coverage and leverage ratios during the first-half of 2012.

Platform designed to enable insurers to control appetites by state, line of insurance and SIC in real time.

Risk Analyzer Homeowners product enhanced with by-peril rating rules, which have been approved in 13 states.

Magazine rates companies’ growth since 2008 and ranks them accordingly.

With the business intelligence product, the broker expects to be able to drill down into its data while analyzing the business from many different perspectives.

Deal furthers global relationship between the two companies.

How a start-up telematics insurer is allowing U.K. insurers to look at young drivers completely differently.